More flying schools land in Salem airport as commercial flights shut

Salem: City airport is becoming a hotspot for pilot training centres in south India. International Aviation Academy launched its centre in the city last Thursday in addition to Southern Pilot Training Academy, which started to train pilots since 2008.

When asked about the reason for choosing Salem airport, Shaji Abraham John, one of the directors of IAA, said, “Good climate condition and runway at Salem Airport is highly suitable for flight training in southern India. Besides, Salem is becoming an education hub and has good road connectivity.”
John said, “A very few flying schools in the country has digital classroom facility and we are one among them, We have other facilities like Wi-Fi enabled classrooms, runway of 1,800 metre length and three fleets of Cessna 152. Cessna 172 aircraft will be available for training in next three months and multi-engine training craft will be in next December in our school.”
“IAA offers two courses – private pilot and commercial pilot. Those who had completed Plus Two with physics and maths are eligible for application,” said IAA’s ground instructor and flying instructor Captain Sarath Nair. He added that fees for the course is 18 lakh. “The flying hour of the course is 200 hours. After 30 to 40 hours of flying hours, the students themselves will operate the aircraft with the help of pilots. The daily flying hours per student will be different,” said Vineeth Kumar, aircraft engineer.
Currently, Salem Airport has zero commercial operation. It was set up in Kaamalapuram in 1993.
28/12/11 L Saravanan/Times of India