Barely two years after they obtained the requisite registration to begin training people in aviation industry, the Indian Aviation Academy (IAA) was considering the possibility of becoming a university.
According to IAA director Dinesh Kumar, they were looking at upgrading their status and introducing full-fledged degree courses over the next few years. Based in Delhi, the academy was jointly run by the AAI, DGCA and BCAS -- their staff being the major beneficiaries of the academy’s training facilities. “Infrastructure is the first step. We are moving to an 8-acre property in Delhi. This will be a state-of-the-art facility and will help us as our courses and numbers increase,” he said.
While the duration of their courses ranged between two days and 10 months, they have decided on their first full-time course - a two-year Masters in Aviation Management, in collaboration with a foreign university. Among the courses offered are aviation management, rigid pavement design and aviation security, Kumar added. In the last year alone, close to 10 per cent of the 3,500 people who trained at the academy have been employed as ‘outsiders’ or non-aviation agency personnel. The academy has also trained persons from Afghanistan in airport security and were looking to host another batch from the African Union soon.