Human resources training and infrastructure to be shored up
Hyderabad: Top honchos of aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, and airline carrier Indian Airlines, on Wednesday expressed the need to shore up human resources training and infrastructure to sustain the current rate of over 30 per cent growth in India’s aviation sector.
The Indian aeronautical education programmes have mainly concentrated on aircraft design and aero dynamics all these years.
However, with the growing demand for new breed of trained professionals, they feel the necessity to concentrate on airline management, airport management, and avionics along with technical training programmes like MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul).
Senior professionals from the aviation sector in the country and experts from the US had converged on Wednesday at a one-day interactive meeting on ‘Industry Perspective of Aviation Education in India’ hosted at the SNIST Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology here.
Efforts are on to develop projects under the public private partnership model in India, which is paving way for new airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore, restructure of existing ones at Delhi and Mumbai and possibly creation of two more new airports in New Delhi and Mumbai.
The Managing Director of Airbus, South Asia, Aajay K. Mehra, said that the passenger traffic is projected to grow from 35 million to 60 million by 2010 and 150 million by 2020. Of the 1,000 aircraft ordered at the Paris Airshow, 400 were booked by Indian airliners.
A fleet addition of such a large magnitude over a four year period would require skilled people with new capabilities who also understand new aviation industry regulations.
Capt S.N. Reddy, Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh on aviation industry, said that India has become an importer of pilots from a situation where it once used to send its pilots abroad for jobs.
To meet the projected addition of about 400 aircraft, India would require about 4,000 pilots, 3,000 engineers, a minimum of 8,000 cabin crew and about one lakh support staff. All of them would need specialised training.
20/12/07 Business Line/Sify