Good plan. Will Kovilpatti get TN’s first Flight Training Organisation?

Will Kovilpatti in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district get Tamil Nadu’s first Flight Training Organisation (FTO) as two private companies showed interest in setting up FTOs in Salem and Ulundurpet but backed out?

Now, there is a proposal by the State government to establish an FTO in Kovilpatti, a small town famous for matches and kadalai mittai (grondnut chikki) while efforts are on to set up FTOs in Salem and Ulundurpet.

The Hyderabad-based Hercules Aviation had plans to develop an FTO at Salem but shifted to Latur airport in Maharashtra due to ‘technical’ reasons, said a company official. Similarly, the Chennai-based Orient Flight Aviation Academy, which operates an FTO at Mysuru, showed interest in developing an FTO at Ulundurpet but dropped the plan for ‘various’ reasons, said sources.

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As of December 2022, there were 34 FTOs operating at 52 bases as approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). However, none in Tamil Nadu.

Kovilpatti has an unused airstrip built by Lakshmi Mills for their private plane in an area of 63 Hectares leased from the Tamil Nadu government in two villages Nalatinputhur and Thonugal. It is an unused runway at a distance of about 6 km from Kovilpatti town.

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The asphalt topped runway is 1.2 km in length and 15 m in width, says the request for proposal (RFP) issued by Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO), the nodal agency for implementing Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor (TNDIC) in the State.

The Kovilpatti runway had suffered normal wear and tear due to weather over the last 20 years. This unused airstrip can accommodate operations of around ten trainer aeroplanes due as it does not have any air traffic.

Operating from airstrips

To help the country overcome its current shortage of trained pilots, decrease its dependence on foreign training for pilots and also contribute significantly to the growth of aviation in the coming years, TIDCO is planning to enable FTOs to operate from the airstrips at Tamil Nadu where the air traffic and infrastructure are conducive, the RFP says.

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In 2010, about 79 million people travelled to/from/or within India. By 2017 that doubled to 158 million. The International Air Transport Association estimates that India will experience 300 million passengers’ departures through a movement of 6 million aircraft by 2030. This is expected to reach 520 million by 2037. The air cargo handled reached 3.56 million tonnes (mt) in 2017 and is expected to cross 11.4 mt by 2032.

According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, the pilot strength in the country in 2017 was at about 8,000 and is estimated to reach about 22,000 by the year 2028. Considering the retirement and migration of pilots, the demand over this decade is expected to be about 18,000.

The number of FTOs in India is too less, due to acute shortage of infrastructure in the country for training pilots. The current supply of the trained pilots in the country stands at about 600 per year and the gap is addressed by pilots who are trained in foreign countries.

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