Air India Awards Contract To Pan Am Flight Academy

Pan Am International Flight Academy has been awarded a roughly $5 million contract by Air India that includes training for 255 Boeing 737 pilots and 95 777 pilots.The training will take place in Miami, according to Gregory Darrow, senior director of sales for Pan Am.Pan Am is also looking at exploring the possibility of opening a training center in India, not only for Air India’s training needs, but for the entire Indian commercial aviation community, says Darrow.A paucity of trained airline pilots in India following increases in fleet sizes is hurting airlines, such as Air India, with a large training backlog of pilots and flight attendants. Air India uses foreign pilots to cover some of its flying and has had to cancel flights due to a lack of qualified crew members.Pan Am’s agreement with Air India is meant to assist the airline with clearing its backlog, says Darrow.Crew training for current staff needing qualification, as well as replacement with Indian pilots of the 100 ex-pats flying for Air India, will take place in Pan Am’s facilities and flight simulators in the U.S.

02/03/11 Neelam Mathews/Aviation Week