Airplane maker Airbus SAS will set up a pilot and maintenance training centre in the National Capital Region at a cost of $40 million for the first phase, to support India’s need for new Airbus pilots.

• Srinivasan Dwarakanathan, president of Airbus division in India, said on an average one Airbus aircraft per week is expected to be delivered to Indian airlines over the next 10 years.
• Airbus said the proposed investment in a training centre is a key strategic Airbus initiative in line with the country’s Skill India programme launched in 2015 by the Indian government to develop a wide range of advanced competencies.
• This new centre will be fully owned by Airbus Group India with training to be delivered by Airbus’s specialized training instructors.
• Airbus has been providing maintenance training from its existing centre in Bengaluru since 2007, and has so far trained over 2,750 maintenance engineers.
• The new center will accelerate the pace of training to help match the A320neo deliveries to India, Airbus said.
• IndiGo, run by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, is one the largest A320neo customer and has its own training centre.
• Airbus is yet to finalise the exact location in Delhi, from where Airbus’s largest customer IndiGo is operating.
• Staffed by Airbus trainers, the proposed pilot training centre will have the capacity to train over 8,000 pilots and 2,000 maintenance engineers over 10 years from 2018.

With 81 million trips, India’s domestic aviation market grew at over 20.3% during January-December 2015, the highest growth rate recorded in the world.