Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated Northeast India's first-ever Flying Training academy in Assam's Lilabari.
The flying academy has been developed by Redbird Flight Training Academy in collaboration with the Airports Authority of India.
The academy has been established in line with the government's announcement of developing nine new academies in addition to the existing 34 academies.
And while this is the first academy in the northeast region, another academy will be brought about in the next phase of the flying academies' development.
"This is a historic day for Assam as the country had 34 flying academies till recently. We have added nine more academies in the first phase and this is the first time in 75 years that we are starting a flying academy in the state of Assam. We will add 15 more flying academies in the second phase and Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh will have one flying academy," Scindia said.
The Hangar and the taxiway at the Lilabari academy were completed jointly by the Redbird Flight Training Academy and the Airports Authority of India in a record time of less than ten months.
"The Redbird Flying Club will give a 200-hour commercial pilot training. Their aim is to make the aspirants capable of flying Airbus or Boeing 737 and will be providing certificates for the same. So this facility will be available here and we are providing them with the airfield for this purpose." said the Officiating Airport Director, Anil H Shinde.
In order to encourage the endeavour in Assam, the Airports Authority of India has also waived the 13 per cent royalty it would charge for such organisations.
Officials of the training academy say the school has brought a lot of enthusiasm for the people of the North-Eastern part of India towards aviation.
One of the officials shared how the academy was planning to go about in the future in order to train flying aspirants in the region.
"Northeastern India comprises around eight states but you won't find even eight pilots from northeastern India who are associated with any big airline. So, In order to reduce this gap and train future pilots from the northeastern region, Redbird Flight Training Academy has been launched. We will be able to train around 100 pilots annually in the coming times," said Karan Mann, an official at the Redbird Flight Training Academy.
The Airports Authority of India has been consistently expanding its footprint across the country.
Its multifold and multidimensional growth in the past few years has not only equipped the country with the state of the art infrastructure but is also developing human resources in a manner that India will find itself amongst the top in coming years.
( With inputs from ANI )
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