India’s aviation sector is soaring to new heights, but a severe shortage of pilots, aircraft engineers, and other skilled staff now threatens to clip its wings. With nearly 2,000 new aircraft on order by Indian airlines, industry growth is outpacing the supply of qualified personnel. A “talent war” has erupted both domestically and internationally, even prompting India to urge a global “code of conduct” to curb the poaching of its pilots and crew. This in-depth look examines how booming demand, limited training capacity, and aggressive recruitment by foreign carriers have fueled “The Great Indian Pilot and AME Shortage” – and why it extends beyond pilots to engineers and other specialists in civil aviation.
Skyrocketing Demand vs. Limited Supply
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, with passenger traffic projected to reach 300 million domestic fliers by 2030. Airlines have ordered hundreds of new jets – around 1,976 aircraft are currently on order for major Indian carriers – to ride this boom. IndiGo and Air India alone have plans to add over 800 planes in coming years, including long-range models to support India’s aspiration of becoming a global aviation hub.
However, fleet expansion has far outpaced the availability of trained flight crews and engineers. India’s government estimates the country will need 30,000 pilots in the next 15–20 years, up from only 6,000–7,000 active pilots today. Industry forecasts are equally sobering: according to CAPA India, 10,900 additional pilots must be hired by 2030 (bringing the total to ~22,400) to meet demand. Currently, India has roughly 11,000–12,000 commercial pilots in total, indicating the workforce must double in less than a decade. Even after issuing a record 1,622 new pilot licenses in 2023, experts warn the country will still face a shortfall of about 2,300 pilots within five years if current training rates persist.
Figure: Commercial Pilot Licences (CPL) issued in India per year. Training output has risen in recent years – 1,622 CPLs were granted in 2023, up from 744 in 2019 – but remains insufficient to meet exploding demand.
The strain is already visible: airlines are struggling to crew flights, especially with experienced captains. India’s aviation ministry insists “there is no overall shortage of pilots/crew,” yet it admits a shortage of captains on certain aircraft types – a gap being filled by hiring foreign pilots on temporary permits. In late 2023, startup carrier Akasa Air lost 43 pilots in an exodus to rival airlines, forcing it to cancel hundreds of flights and even warning of a shutdown riskreuters.comreuters.com. Established airlines have also jousted over talent: in one high-profile incident, Air India Express and Akasa traded accusations of poaching each other’s pilots, highlighting how fierce the competition for cockpit crew has becomereuters.comreuters.com.
Foreign Poaching and the Global “Talent War”
India’s pilot shortage is not occurring in isolation – it’s part of a global crunch for aviation talent. As air travel rebounds post-pandemic, airlines worldwide are scrambling to recruit pilots, engineers and cabin crew. Consultancy Oliver Wyman projects a global shortfall of 80,000 pilots by 2032 if current trends continue. The Middle East region alone may face a deficit of 18,000 pilots – the largest outside North America – due to the aggressive expansion of Gulf carriers. In fact, Middle Eastern airlines are leading the charge in what industry analysts call a “talent war,” offering hefty pay packages to attract skilled staff from around the world. Pilot salaries have surged (chief pilots in some regions saw nearly 50% pay hikes in 2024 vs 2023 amid bidding wars), and carriers like Emirates are holding recruitment roadshows in dozens of cities.
Indian aviation professionals are highly coveted in this global market, and many are being lured overseas. Indian authorities have raised alarms that foreign airlines – especially in the Middle East and Southeast Asia – are hiring away India’s pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers, technicians, and even cabin crew “without adequate notice,” hampering the growth of India’s own airlines. In August 2025, India went so far as to submit a working paper to the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) calling for a global code of conduct on the hiring of each other’s airline staff. The proposal argues that unchecked “poaching” of talent creates a vicious cycle: Indian carriers invest in training new personnel, only to see them leave for foreign or rival airlines, forcing constant replacements. This churn diverts resources from expansion and “adversely impacts India’s ability to develop its civil aviation sector in an orderly manner,” the paper contends.
Indian officials say such practices are undermining Prime Minister Modi’s ambitious goal of 300 million domestic air passengers by 2030 and an expanded aviation hub. Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has also announced plans to create 50+ new training organizations in the next five years to bolster local talent supply. “Our fast-growing airlines can’t flourish if experienced crew are siphoned off abroad,” notes R. Husain, an aviation expert, adding that India’s carriers often struggle to match the tax-free salaries and perks offered by Gulf airlines.
However, the push for anti-poaching rules has sparked debate. Pilot unions argue that restricting job mobility is not the answer. ALPA India (Airline Pilots’ Association of India) publicly opposed the proposed global hiring code, likening it to enforcing “bonded labour”. In a letter to the ministry, ALPA India’s president pointed out that the real reasons pilots leave India include “poor working conditions, lack of job security, limited career growth and non-standardized pay” at home. “Targeting outbound employment sets a dangerous precedent,” the union warned, urging regulators to instead improve domestic conditions. In short, unless Indian airlines make careers more attractive, they risk losing talent either way – whether to foreign recruiters or to other industries. “High attrition is a symptom; we must fix the cause,” says R. Husain, arguing that competitive pay, work-life balance, and merit-based career progression are essential to retain skilled personnel.
Training Bottlenecks: The Supply Side Challenge
A core issue behind the shortage is that pilot training capacity in India has not kept up with demand. The country produces only a few hundred new commercial pilots annually from domestic Flying Training Organizations (FTOs). A parliamentary committee report in 2023 estimated India needs roughly 1,000 new pilots every year, but existing FTOs churn out only about 300, while another ~300 Indian cadets train abroad – leaving a large gap. In other words, nearly half of India’s newly minted pilots are obtaining their wings overseas due to limited slots and resources at home.
The output is rising – DGCA data show 5,710 Commercial Pilot Licences were issued in the last five years (2019–2023), with annual CPL issuance more than doubling from 578 in 2020 to 1,622 in 2023. But this is still insufficient. And a license alone doesn’t equal an airline-ready pilot; graduates need substantial flying hours and type ratings to become deployable, meaning it can take years to turn a cadet into an airline captain. Experienced commanders (those qualified to operate advanced jets and train others) are in especially short supply – a constraint that money alone can’t quickly fix.
India’s government and regulator have launched initiatives to ease training bottlenecks:
- New FTO campuses: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has liberalized policies to encourage more flight schools. It scrapped royalty fees and offered discounted leases at airports, awarding 15 new FTO slots across the country since 2021 (in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, etc.). These new academies are starting to add capacity.
- Modernized exams: DGCA introduced online on-demand pilot and AME exams to fast-track licensing, and empowered more instructors to authorize training flights (not just the Chief Flying Instructor) to increase flying hours available to students.
- National institutions: India’s flagship pilot school, IGRUA (Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi), and the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University have been earmarked for funding increases after years of neglect. (Their budgets were slashed to a trickle – RGNAU’s funding fell from ₹18 crore in 2018 to just ₹10 crore by 2023 – limiting their ability to expand). A parliamentary panel in 2023 urged a five-fold budget boost for aviation education to modernize infrastructure and curriculum.
Despite these efforts, capacity is playing catch-up. A stark indicator: the fleet of trainer aircraft at IGRUA dropped from 24 planes in 2017 to just 15 by 2023 due to underinvestment, even as aspiring pilot numbers grew. Shakti Lumba, a veteran pilot and former IndiGo executive, has argued that keeping public academies under-funded only drove trainees to more expensive private schools or foreign institutes. “We must scale up quality training at home – it’s the only sustainable way to meet demand,” says R. Husain. This includes not just pilots but training for instructors, examiners, and support staff who form the ecosystem to safely grow the talent pool.
Beyond Pilots: Engineers and Specialized Staff in Short Supply
It’s not only cockpit crew feeling the crunch. Aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs), technicians, air traffic controllers, and other specialized roles are also under pressure as Indian aviation expands. Boeing’s latest 20-year outlook underscores the massive needs: 710,000 new maintenance technicians and 1,000,000 new cabin crew will be required globally by 2044, alongside 660,000 new pilots. South Asia is the fastest-growing region – its total aviation workforce demand is expected to more than triple (requiring about 141,000 new personnel by 2044) according to Boeing.
In India, every new plane added means more engineers and technicians needed for safe operations. The country will receive over 2,000 new commercial aircraft in the next two decades, which translates into tens of thousands of additional AMEs, technicians, and ground crew. Already, major carriers like IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and others are seeking to hire more licensed AMEs to maintain their growing fleets. The Ministry of Civil Aviation reports 57 DGCA-approved AME training institutes currently producing about 3,500 maintenance graduates per year, and insists this is “sufficient to cater to demand”. But industry observers are less sanguine. Many newly certified engineers lack type-specific experience, and seasoned engineers are in high demand worldwide (the global AME shortage has created “high mobility” for those with licenses). Indian MRO (maintenance, repair & overhaul) companies too have to compete to retain talent.
Air traffic control is another area of concern: India’s airports are handling record flight volumes, yet 30% of ATC positions were unfilled as of 2023, with ~1,600 more controllers needed to meet requirements. This staff crunch can pose safety risks and operational bottlenecks if not addressed, as highlighted by India’s ATC Guild. Likewise, DGCA itself has 48% of posts vacant (814 out of 1,692), hampering its oversight capabilities. These examples show that the talent shortage spans the entire aviation ecosystem – not just pilots in cockpits, but maintainers on the ground and regulators in offices.
Case in point: In mid-2023, Air India had to temporarily ground some aircraft because it lacked sufficient engineers and spares to keep them airworthy (especially after years of disinvestment prior to Tata’s takeover). While the airline is hiring hundreds of AMEs and pilots as part of its revival, the training and upskilling of such a large workforce is an enormous task. Other airlines have raised retirement ages and even brought back retired personnel on contract to fill gaps. Air India recently raised pilot retirement to age 65, aligning with global norms, to retain senior captains a bit longer.
In the Middle East and Southeast Asia, airlines face similar workforce crunches but are investing heavily in talent development. For example, Emirates has its own flight academy and is hiring across 350 roles – from pilots to ground handlers – with 17,300 new staff planned in 2024-25. Etihad Airways is offering full scholarships to staff to become pilots in its cadet program. Riyadh Air, a new Saudi carrier launching in 2025, is recruiting 700 pilots and crew in its first three years. These initiatives, backed by deep pockets, show how aggressively other regions are moving to secure aviation talent. “It’s a seller’s market for skilled aviators,” says R. Husain. “If we don’t train and value our people well, someone else certainly will.”
Navigating the Crisis: Toward Sustainable Solutions
The pilot and engineer shortage in India is a multidimensional challenge, but not an insurmountable one. Stakeholders across the industry are now taking action to close the gap:
- Airlines are expanding cadet programs and ties with flight schools. IndiGo, for instance, runs a cadet pilot program with overseas training partners, and hired over 1,000 pilots in the past two years to staff its growth. Airlines are also improving pay scales and career paths; many reinstated pre-pandemic salaries and offer faster upgrades to captain for junior pilots to encourage them to stay. Some have even provided financial assistance to cadets during training in return for service commitments.
- Government & Regulator are in reform mode. Beyond increasing FTOs, the Civil Aviation Ministry is considering incentives like soft loans or scholarships for pilot training, recognizing that the high cost (₹50–70 lakh for a CPL) is a barrier that leaves many seats unfilled. Collaboration with foreign academies is being explored to bring world-class training techniques to India. The DGCA is also streamlining hiring to fill its own vacancies and planning recruitment drives to strengthen its technical workforce.
- Technology & Innovation will play a role in easing training bottlenecks. Simulator capacity is being ramped up; airlines are investing in more simulators for advanced jets so pilots can get type-rated internally. Boeing and others are introducing VR/AR based training tools to enhance learning efficiency. There’s also talk of using AI for personalized training regimes to fast-track proficiency. (In the longer term, concepts like reduced-crew or single-pilot operations on long-haul flights are being studied in Europe, but these remain controversial and are not near-term solutions.)
- Improving Work Conditions is crucial. As ALPA and experts have underscored, retention is as important as recruitment. This means addressing pilots’ quality of life – stable schedules, adequate rest, transparent HR policies – and creating a professional environment that values safety and growth. Airlines that neglect this may train pilots only to see them depart. Conversely, those known for good work culture (for example, some Indian carriers have implemented more predictable rostering and better HR engagement post-pandemic) tend to have lower attrition.
For India to truly become the global aviation powerhouse it envisions, investing in its human capital is just as critical as buying new jets. The coming years will test the industry’s ability to balance rapid growth with safety and service quality, which ultimately rests on having the right people in the right numbers. If the country manages to dramatically scale up training capacity, foster public-private partnerships in aviation education, and make airline careers more rewarding, it can turn the talent crunch into an opportunity – producing not just enough pilots and engineers for itself, but perhaps even an exportable surplus of aviation professionals.
“India has the youth and the aspiration needed for aviation,” observes R. Husain. “With the correct policies and partnerships, we can nurture home-grown pilots and engineers at scale – and ensure the boom in our skies is powered by Indian talent.” Until then, the great Indian pilot shortage remains a pressing reality, demanding urgent and concerted action from all stakeholders to keep India’s aviation dreams aloft.
Sources: India Ministry of Civil Aviation (PIB), Reuters, The Wire, Economic Times Travel, Boeing PTO, Others.
