NEW DELHI: India will issue its highest ever number of commercial pilot licences (CPL) in a calendar year in 2021. Till November 23, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had issued 756 CPLs and with over a month to go, the year will end at a higher number. The previous high, 744, was seen in pre-pandemic 2019, with the figure falling to 578 last year due to lockdowns, reports Saurabh Sinha.
“The pandemic has seen airlines lay off pilots, slash their salaries and delay payments, yet that did not dampen the spirits of budding pilots, despite the steep cost of training to become a pilot. The general feeling is that the pandemic will someday be over, travel will be back, people will fly and pilots needed,” said a senior official about the record-setting 2021. Krishnendu Gupta, director of the government-run Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) near Lucknow, told TOI he saw tremendous interest in choosing this path during the pandemic. “Every year there are some candidates from the selected list who do not turn up to join the CPL course and we have to turn to names in the first and second standby lists.
