Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Aviation Academy
Chennai
Project proposal by:
Dr. K .Ramalingam
Section 1: Origin of the Proposal
Aviation in India is booming now and promising a great future. There is acute
shortage of human resources who are trained, skilled and employable in the
highly technical Civil Aviation Sector. The shortage is due to unprecedented
business growth in the sector following the boom in the IT sector. The shortage is
both in the infrastructure as well as in the right kind of human resources. The
business is growing, making the shortages more acute. There are all-around
opportunities for creating Training s and Business s by various Government
Institutions and Private Institutions to manage the shortages. The workforce
requirement is of highly technical and surely of quality personnel to manage the
aviation business. There is great opportunity for qualified and skilled workforce to
operate and manage the growth in aviation. While many Educational and
Business Houses are hurriedly on business to pick up the opportunity, it is
worrying that the quality and the skill-set are questionable in the market for
employment.
Section 2: Objectives
The Civil Aviation sector is booming with business opportunities. The air traffic
growth in India and China is promising. There are many developmental projects
happening in these countries to cope up with the growth due to the global
influence. The developments are in the areas of creating additional airports and
aerospace infrastructure with excellent standards of equipment and systems. The
financial commitment to modernize airport systems and airport infrastructure has
special attention of the Governments both at the States and the Central levels.
The quality requirement and the service level competencies as demanded by the
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air travelers are commanding. Therefore, a definite source of human resource is
necessary to serve the traveling public and promote the aviation sector globally.
The new school of Aviation will have the following objectives:
Appreciating the civil aviation growth and the impending human resource
shortage in various disciplines, the vision is to develop and train quality work
force ready to be employed by the Organizations and to support and sustain the
growth in the aviation sector. This proposal is to start a school of aviation in the
University in the coming session. The course contents and training modules will
be tailored based on the job requirements, as detailed by the prospective
employers. While the will have a wider plan to cover all areas of specialization in
the aviation sector in the long run, certain courses will be focused towards the
programme of augmenting the manpower shortage that is faced now in spite of
various institutions already supplying the trained specialists. The University will
focus to develop quality workforce by entering into an MOU with the prospective
employers. The proposal has the following scope of activities:
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• Establish a cell to market and manage the placement of freshly-recruited
and trained-personnel with the employers
The Open-Sky policy came into existence in April 1990. The policy allowed air
taxi- operators to operate flights from any airport, both on a charter and on non-
charter basis, and to decide their own flight schedules, cargo and passenger
fares. The operators were required to use aircraft with a minimum of 15 seats
and conform to the prescribed rules. In 1990, the private air taxi-operators carried
15,000 passengers which increased to 4.1 lakhs in 1991, 29.2 lakhs in 1992, 36
lakhs in 1993, 36 lakhs in 1994 and 48.9 lakhs in 1995.
The repeal of the Air Corporation Act from 1 March 1994 enabled private
operators to provide air transport services. Six operators were given the status of
scheduled operators on 1 February 1995.
In 1996, private air taxi operators carried 49.08 lakh passengers, which
amounted to a 41.14 per cent share in the domestic air passenger traffic. Seven
operators viz. NEPC Airlines, Skyline NEPC, Jet Air, Archana Airways, Sahara
India Airlines, Modiluft and East West Airlines had acquired the status of
scheduled airlines then. Besides this, there were 22 non-scheduled private
operators and 34 private operators holding no-objection certificate in 1996. The
number of aircraft in the private sector was 34 and the total fleet strength was 75
in June 1996. Two, out of seven, scheduled air taxi operators suspended their
operations in 1996, because of the non-availability of aircraft.
In August 1996, in a major policy decision, the government allowed the private
sector to set up air cargo complexes in a bid to ensure smooth movement of
export cargo.
Domestic travel in India went for a big leap with the Information Technology
revolution in 2000. Many of the multinational companies started their operation
from most of the states across India and many Indian companies have taken
B.P.O operation for various MNCs. Similarly, the automobile industry expanded
by positioning companies like Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Toyota, etc. in Chennai,
Bangalore, Haryana and Mumbai. Tourism Industry is growing at the rate of 18
to 20 % annually. All this growth brought fast development of the Air, Rail and
Road transport sector, from 2000 onwards,
The Civil Aviation sector is on peak of growth and portrays a promising future for
India. The recent wave of liberalization has observed a rapid transition in the
industry, from that of being 'classy' and 'elite' to that of 'affordability' among the
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common masses, by means of low cost fares, effective sectoral connectivity and
the emergence of a number of private players.
There are 1158 aircrafts, 288 helicopters, 128 gliders and 61 ultra light crafts
registered with the Government of India besides 185 commercial aircrafts and 30
helicopters in India compared to China, which operates 750 aircrafts.
A pack of new airlines is rolling out to Indians for whom the air travel so far was
only an aspiration due to unaffordable tariff. In India, around 480 millions travel
by train per month and average 9.74 millions travel by air every month. “India
needs 570 aircrafts worth 55 billion US dollars by 2023” – says Mr. Kiran Rao,
Vice President of Air Bus Industry.
As per the case study done by Air Bus, if 570 aircrafts are acquired by 2023 a
minimum number of pilots required will be 6000. In short, India will become a
major aviation hub in Asia by 2023.
Air India and Indian Airlines are the Government- owned international and
domestic flag carriers. They have been merged in 2007 as an integrated entity.
The Indian sky is busy with the addition of new airlines like, Paramount Airways,
Go Air, King Fisher, Spice Jet, Indigo Air, Magic Air etc.
Private airlines – Jet, Sahara, Kingfisher, Deccan, Spice jet - account for around
80% of the domestic passenger traffic. Some have now started international
flights.
Private Airport Operators have entered in aviation business to own and manage
airports with modern facilities after commercially notifying the operation of
Hyderabad International Airport Limited (HIAL) in March 2008 and Bangaluru
International Airport Limited (BIAL) in May 2008. The Delhi International Airport
Limited (DIAL) with GMR consortium and Mumbai International Airport Limited
(MIAL) with GVK consortium are already in existence since April 2007.Thus,
there are private players other than the hitherto monopoly, Airports Authority of
India, to own and manage civil airports in India.
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Considering the present growth trend, the Indian Government has now
announced a new aviation policy to promote civil aviation.
The air traffic statistics for the year 2007-08 shows that Indian airports handled
116.87 million passengers with a growth of 21.2% over the previous year 2006-
07 and 1.307 million aircraft movements, 21.3% over the previous year.
The passenger traffic has crossed 100 millions mark and India has become the
ninth biggest aviation market in the world, improving the earlier position of 11th
during the year 2007 as per ACI (Airport Council International) traffic data. Higher
growth in traffic is due to increased operation by low cost airlines and increase in
frequency of existing airlines. Number of foreign airlines started operations at
international airports other than Mumbai and Delhi airports.
Civil Aviation Sector in our country is witnessing boom in terms of traffic growth.
The overall growth in passenger movement over years is depicted in the chart
below to appreciate the business potential growth in civil aviation.
116.87
120
Passenger movement in millions
96.4
100
80 73.35
59.28
60 48.78
43.73
39.99
40
20
0
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
Fina ncia l Ye a r
Section 7: Airports Authority of India and Private Airport operators
The Government of India was managing the Civil Aerodromes in India through
Civil Aviation Department while the regulatory functions were handled by DGCA:
the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, until 1976. The International Airports
Authority of India (IAAI) was instituted to manage four international airports at
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkatta in 1976, carving out of Civil Aviation
Department, (CAD) leaving the other airports to manage domestic operations
with CAD. The National Airports Authority (NAA) was formed in 1986 to manage
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all domestic airports as a Public Sector Undertaking, leaving the DGCA as part of
Government body to regulate aviation in India under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The Government merged both IAAI and NAA as one Authority as the Airports
Authority of India, in 1995, a Public Sector undertaking (PSU) under an act of
Parliament. The DGCA still remains with the Government.
The Airports Authority of India handles all matters relating to infrastructure for
civil air traffic and transport at the international and the domestic airports and
enclaves in the country. India has 128 airports; of these 15 are designated as
international airports.
Around 327 merchant airports are also planned for development as per recent
aviation policy announced by Union Government
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• Commercial business partners,
• Financial Managers,
• Infrastructure maintenance managers and System operators,
• Infrastructure operators, Aviation development advisers,
• Project Consultants and Administrators,
• Communication Systems operators and Managers,
• Oil Companies supplying Aircraft Turbine Fuel, Fire & Rescue services,
• Taxi, Cars, Auto and Bus operators,
• Food Courts,
• Commercial business on Bank, Posts, Foreign Exchange, Medical
Assistance,
• House Managers,
• Facilitation Centres and shops,
• Felicitation services to VVIPs,
• Publicity/Advertisements entities,
• Terminal Managers,
• Flight Information Announcers,
• Baggage Handlers,
• Traffic flow managers,
• Security managers,
• large crowd of constructors and maintenance operators,
• skilled and semi-skilled workers and staff,
• Cargo Operators,
• Cargo Agents,
• Ground Support services,
• Quarantine Services, etc.
Around 100-120 agencies are operating including touts and agents for unknown
illegal activities in a major airport like Chennai International Airport.
With private players coming in as airport operators, all these functions except the
air traffic control, security and regulatory functions will be now with the private
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airport operators. In future, the emphasis and drive will be on efficiency and
quality in service delivery to air passengers and airline operators.
These developments and the new scenario in civil aviation sector really demand
a high quality, skilled human resource immediately to manage the assured
business and traffic growth.
Air traffic services in the country, so far the sole domain of airport regulator
Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the largest source of revenues, may soon be
hived off as part of a restructuring planned by the civil aviation ministry to set up
a specialist entity running air navigation operations—on the lines of the US
federal aviation administration—across Indian airports.
The proposed restructuring of AAI is part of the new civil aviation policy, called
Vision 2020.
Already the Delhi and Mumbai airports—the largest revenue earner for the
authority accounting for about Rs1,300 crore in 2005-06—have been handed
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over to private consortia for the next 30 years and most of the other 35 non-
metro airports plan to lease out terminal and retail space to private
entrepreneurs.
The creation of a new entity will help bring to the fore critical issues of air
navigation resulting in a quicker resolution of problems.
The CNS and ATC staff is recruited by the Airports Authority of India though
open competition among fresh engineering graduates .On selection, the
candidates undergo a rigorous training for a year at the Civil Aviation Training
Centre (CATC), Allahabad. The training programme is as per ICAO approved
syllabus and the practical training is through simulators. Finally, the candidates
are to pass an examination before they are allowed to put to operations in the
airports. The training capacity in terms of faculty and infrastructure are limited to
60 only in a batch. This limitation affects the availability of ATC and CNS staff for
operation at the required period.
The School of Aviation Academy can explore the opportunity to conduct the
course programmes simultaneously along with CATC as per MOU with AAI so
that more trained workforce is available as required in the field for operations
The ATC and CNS staff are also trained periodically in their respective
responsibilities in various systems, procedures and equipment operations and
maintenance. These training programmes are conducted through Regional
Training Centre. Here also, the can compliment the training programmes on
advanced technologies where such facilities are yet to come.
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Terminal managers are responsible for coordination with all the airlines for
smooth traffic flow, Customer Complaints Handling, Maintaining all equipment
and facilities in serviceable conditions, Airport Emergency Handling, House
keeping and vigilance over terminal security and safety aspects. The airports are
constantly expanding to create space to accommodate the increased traffic
growth and the consequential complexities in handling the passengers, baggage
handling, traffic regulations both for arrival and for departure aircrafts, including
allocation of parking space and service equipment for aircraft, passengers and
baggage.
On the airside, the aircrafts movements have increased to a greater extent. The
number of airlines using the airport at a time has also increased. Each airline has
its own staff and support service equipment to ground handle their aircraft at
apron right from parking in the apron till it takes off. All these developments have
resulted in large number of vehicles and staffs working in the apron at a time.
Most of the staff, employed by private operators, is not fully and truly trained in
their responsibilities. There is shortage of staff in apron management functions
both with airline operators and airport operators. There is a definite opportunity to
develop human resource truly trained in apron and terminal management
functions to handle the operations more efficiently and safely
There is a new trend of facilitating VIPs, Official dignitaries, elderly and physically
disabled and sick personalities to be handled more respectfully .There is no
special arrangement to treat these functions as inclusive of service to increase
the customer satisfaction index of the airport. This concept of employing new
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breed of service of hospitality need to be marketed since employment opportunity
for trained workforce on hospitality does exist.
When the terminal facilities and services are upgraded and added to keep pace
with the growth, care has to be taken to position additional trained work force in
proportion to the additions in the terminal facilities. Currently, there is a large
shortage of work force for Terminal Managers, House keeping Managers and
Hospitality Managers.
Commercial Managers
Airport operators focus on increasing the non-aeronautical revenues from
commercial activities in and around the airport terminals and on making better
land use for commercial exploitation The staff to handle these activities are either
not trained or are insufficient in position. There are many opportunities to look
into this area for developing skilled human resource.
The academy may create training modules and programmes for freshers and for
refreshers from airport employees engaged in these responsibilities. The training
module may include programmes pertaining to functions to discharge service
efficiently as:
Terminal Managers
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House Keeping Managers
Hospitality Managers
Commercial Managers
Fire and Rescue management managers
Work force requirement to these services are needed both for the Airports
Authority of India and for the Private Airport Operators.
Considering the growth potential in traffic and expansion programmes for new
and upgraded airport facilities, more job opportunities are envisaged both in
ground support services and in air space services. The human resource
requirement both by AAI and Private Operators are bound to increase. The
possible job opportunities to meet the work force requirement are expected in the
following areas of specialization.
• Air Traffic Controllers
• Terminal Managers
• House Keeping Managers
• Hospitality and Front Desk managers
• Commercial Managers
• CNS maintenance Managers
• Building maintenance managers
• Service Systems maintenance Managers
• Cargo Handling Managers
• IT systems managers
• Fire and Rescue management managers
• Security and airport emergency programme managers
The training modules proposed to start in the academy will focus on two fronts.
Firstly, to develop modules for training programmes as conducted by the
Organization with a possibility to have an understanding to augment their
facilities. The following programmes are proposed:
For Airline Operators
• Pilot Training (License upgrades and refreshers)
• Cabin crew management
• Aircraft dispatcher
• Airline ground support manager
For Airport Operators
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• Air Traffic Controllers (JET , Junior Executives Trainees)
• Communication, Navigation, Surveillance (CNS) Operating service
Personnel
• Terminal Managers
• House Keeping managers
• Commercial Managers
• Fire and Rescue management managers
The project proposal is aimed to start the academy in the coming educational
year 2008. The immediate focus is to concentrate on training modules and
Courses which have high demand at the present time. This has been discussed
in Section 12. The structure of the programme will be decided after consultation
with the prospective employers. The course duration and the input qualifications
will also be decided as per the regulations already available for each course. The
approval / accreditation to the programmes / courses will be obtained from the
appropriate regulators such as DGCA, Ministry of Civil Aviation, UGC and ICAO.
The syllabus and course development for each programme will be done by
employing experts in the respective fields either from the retired persons on short
assignments or on permanent employment as per the University norms. The
possibilities of engaging experts, working with airline operators, airport operators,
Government Regulators and external reputed Universities / Institutes offering
such programmes and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Trainers
will be explored either for short assignments or as visiting faculty.
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• Airports Authority of India
• Air India
• Jet Airways
• Kingfisher airlines
• CIAL,MIAL,DIAL ,HIAL & BIAL
• HAL Bangalore
• DGCA
The MOU parameters with the employers will include the following objectives.
• To spare working resourceful persons for short assignment for course
development and teaching
• To allow the students / trainees to visit selected airport installations for
onsite understanding
• To associate with the University to evaluate the students/trainees in their
final tests, both for theory and practical
• To allow the academy to use the educational infrastructure including the
teachers in CATC of Airports Authority of India for course development
and using simulators for practice
• To represent the organization in the Academic Advisory Council of the
academy.
• To encourage skill enhancement programmes by announcing incentives to
the working employees
• To commit to employ the qualified and certified students of the programme
in the Organization
• The academy assists to undertake the selection process of recruitments
for the entry level position in the Organization
The following are proposed as MOU parameters with the external universities.
• Assistance in development of course material
• Exchange of students for university visits for short duration as part of the
training
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• Exchange of faculty as visiting professors
• Teaching courses by faculty either in person or through Video-
conferencing
• To participate as advisors in the Academic Advisory Council of the
academy
The pilot training course has requirement of mandatory practical solo training
hours in the aircraft. The types of aircrafts used for practical training are listed
below.
The training aircrafts can be hired initially from the Aircraft manufacturers or
purchased on lease as per the market practice.
Suitable airfield for practicing flying activities is proposed. Busy airports like
Chennai, Madurai and Trichy are not available for this purpose. These airports
have become active with scheduled flights. However, the airports at Vellore,
Puducherry and Salem are non - operational and are fit for flight training. These
airports are under the Airports Authority of India. The academy may enter into an
understanding to use these airports for practical flying training.
ATS Simulators
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realistic images and fully interactive systems. It is required to train tower
controllers to handle a variety of air traffic situations.
Fire Simulators
A comprehensive range of fire simulators is required to fully train and test fire
fighting and safety skills of participants. The simulators are maintained at a
dedicated fire-training ground where participants undergo true-to-life simulated
exercises involving undercarriage fires, internal aircraft fires, fires at fuel
installations, a vertical fire wall and flashover fires.
It is proposed to use a "virtual" Fire Simulator for tactical command and control
training. A controlled-environment Breathing Apparatus Simulator is also
proposed to provide rescue training in a realistic fire environment.
Other Facilities
The secretariat set up with office equipments and staff shall be provided to assist
the Director for administration and management of the academy.
The training programme for all courses are in two parts one with classroom
instruction on theory and the other on practical instruction off the campus.
The administration and course instructors for theory will be placed in position
after carefully identifying the experts in the market and appointing them on
suitable levels considering their requirement and retention. The availability of
experts in aviation especially in teaching aviation in India is limited. Therefore,
there is necessity to look for experts from external aviation universities.
The following staff pattern is suggested to start with initially. The projections will
be reviewed periodically with reference to growth.
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i. Administration set up:
• Director-1
• Asst. Professors-2
• Marketing Coordinator and Placement- 1
• Secretariat staff with office equipment and functional assistance- 3
Director:
The proposal suggests that the of Aviation Academy will be headed at the level
of Director. The leading aviation Trainings are headed by Directors or CEO level
as per the information in internet clippings. The designation is important and
matters to motivate the head to work with vision and enthusiasm on the new
venture. The following tasks for the position also justify the proposal.
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interactions and relevance with these Organizations matters great and
important in resolving the initial issues
• The resource person’s expertise in aviation, Ph.D (IIT-D) Qualifications,
earlier held the position of Executive Director for 8 years and his interests
and availability with commitment to develop the is also important and
considers merit at this stage
Asst. Professors-2
The proposal suggests two positions initially at the level of Asst Professors. The
level is suggested with a focus on future growth prospects for the incumbent.
One position will be from the existing strength of the University to assure
academic administration. He will be coordinating with university to ensure that
the rules and procedures of the academy are in line with the University norms
and systems
The second position will be for handling the technical activities related to field
experience relevant to the administration of course programme.The rules and
requirements for recognition of the courses and prospective employers’
coordination are the tasks to be addressed initially and Course coordination
thereafter.
The main task is to market the programme for admission of students and interact
with the prospective employers for coordination for in-house training programmes
and creating environment for placement with the prospective employers. The
incumbent shall be from experts from the Organizations either retired or from the
working resources in airlines/ airports operators.
The levels of positions are as per the practice followed by reputed Training
Institutes.
Based on the work elements identified earlier, the time schedule to start the
academy for the first batch of trainee is drawn as below.
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3 Identification of physical infrastructure and possession 3 to 6
4 Identification of Institute support staff and position 3 to 6
5 Identification of Faculty permanent + Visiting faculty 3 to 8
6 Identification of Employers & MOU finalisation 3 to 8
8 Finalisation of Course & Fee structure and approval 4 to 8
9 Finalisation of syllabus and course material 4 to 12
10 Identification and possession of training equipment 8 to 16
11 Identification of external faculty from universities 8 to 20
12 MOU with prospective s & faculty of external 15 to 20
universities
13 Approval from Govt. Regulators 8 to 27
14 Firm up of practical fields for live training ( airports) 8 to 27
15 Identification and possession of Training Equipments 12 to 35
16 Advertisement for applicants 17 to 27
17 Finalisation of applications and admissions 27 to 30
18 Commencement of the Training programme 36
A summary of the yearly budget may be prepared after categorising a Budget for
work force and a Budget for permanent equipment, once in-principle approval of
the proposal by management is received. Details of the costs on each resource
will be estimated and presented separately for budget approval from the
University. However, the items of various resources are discussed in the
succeeding sections without costing. Realistic estimate of the costs of different
items involved will be worked out later.
The Civil Aviation sector is booming both globally and nationally with assured
growth predicted at 26% .The civil aviation business is one of the promising
business clusters among the other clusters of energy, health care, biotechnology
etc. The will have focus on developing qualified, certified and ready to employ
human resource for aviation business centres. The concept of associating the
employers is proposed in imparting the training with a specially detailed
programmes developed by experts in the respective fields in aviation. The
proposal of training envisages developing human resource with expertise
required by the prospective employers: - Airport operators, Airline Operators,
Government regulators, and airport business communities. The programme is for
courses, which have high potential of employment for fresher and short- term
refresher for skill development of working employees.
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The proposal is to start training programmes in the following specialization areas
in the immediate possible period
The physical infrastructure for the academy will be identified from the existing
resources. The Course development, faculty and teaching tools will be resourced
from recently retired suitable employees or working employees on assignment
basis from Airlines and Airports Authority of India. The proposal suggests to enter
into memorandum of understanding (MOUs) with leading Universities/Institutes
both globally and nationally to ensure currency of the courses and opportunity of
employability globally. The MOUs will be signed with prospective national
employers viz. Airlines, Airport operators and DGCA to assure the trainees on
confidence of employability and to ensure currency of the training modules for
field requirements.
The academy will provide the best opportunity and facilities of high-class
standards and infrastructures for preparing a highly competitive and promising
human resource that is readily employable by the booming aviation business.
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