The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and the Bangalore-based Subramanya Construction and Development Company yesterday signed a joint venture agreement to set up the world’s first integrated aviation university and training campus in the Karnataka capital. Together they will invest $125 million to develop CAPA AeroPark on a 50-acre site in Bangalore by 2012. The fully developed campus will have state-of-the-art academic facilities together with full flight simulators, a flying school, engineering workshops and laboratories, research centres, accommodation for students and faculty, recreational facilities, a hotel and convention centre. The university is to have satellite academies in Delhi and Mumbai for airline and airport management, pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, cabin crew and regulators.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the Asia Pacific region has training capacity to meet only 35% of its annual requirement of almost 14,000 pilots- an annual shortfall of 9,000.
The CAPA AeroPark has been developed after consultations with airlines, airports, governments, universities and aviation training providers from around the world, and on-the-ground study of currently available training infrastructure in India.