Air India's aviation varsity likely to come up soon

We want to create a world class university and make it heavily commercial, says Ashwani Lohani

Air India is planning to set up an aviation university for providing various programmes that can also be an additional revenue stream for it in the long term.

The national carrier, which is working on ways to improve its financial position, has already started exploring various options for having a university, airline officials said. The idea is to have an institution that offers a range of aviation training programmes for pilots, cabin crew, operations and engineering staff, among others, they said.

“We want to create a world class university and make it heavily commercial,” Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani said. The national carrier has also approached Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL) to look at the possibility to convert its Central Training Establishment (CTE) in Hyderabad into a deemed-to-be-university. “EdCIL would be studying the viability aspects and is expected to submit a report in three months,” Air India Executive Director (Training) Capt Amitabh Singh said.