Canadian Aviation Firm Signs MoUs With India

Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) are forming a joint venture to establish a National Flying Institute in Gondia at a cost if $25 million, according to Zee News.

Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between the two entities at the Paris Air Show to set up the institute and to manage operations at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Academy (IGRUA) in Rai Bareilly.

According to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, India needs about 5,000 pilots over the next five years to meet industry demands.

"Creating these world-class institutions in the country with CAE as our partner is a major government initiative targeted at tackling both the acute shortage of Indian pilots and improving the overall quality of the cadet supply within the country," he said in Paris.

Under the first MoU, AAI will hold 49 percent equity and CAE the remaining 51 percent. The joint venture company, with sophisticated technology and new aircraft, would produce about 200 pilots a year.

In the second MoU, CAE will assume responsibility of the management of IGRUA's existing flying school operations within two months and broaden the institute's capacity from its present 40 cadets to 110 per year and eventually to 200 per year.

FMI: www.cae.com, http://civilaviation.nic.in/igrua/dis-igrua.htm, http://civilaviation.nic.in/aai/airport.htm