India Has Over 11,000 Pilots, Including 1,871 Women: Govt

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 12 March 2026

• There are over 11,000 pilots working with major domestic carriers in India
• IndiGo has the maximum number of pilots working with any airline in India. There are 5,200 pilots working with IndiGo
• The information has been shared by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation in Lok Sabha

The Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol has submitted statistics to the Lok Sabha concerning the number of available fighter pilots on the 12th of March, indicating that India has approximately eleven thousand three hundred 94 available pilots and approximately one thousand nine hundreds of them are women.

The largest employers of pilots in India include Indigo Airlines, which employs five 5200 pilots (970 women); Air India, which employs three 1023 (508 women); Air India Express, which employs one 1820 (234 women); Akasa Air, which employs 761 (76 women); Spice Jet, which employs 324 (58 women); and Alliance Air, which employs one 115 (25 women) pilots.

The minister provided information about foreign pilots, noting that Alliance Air has fifteen pilots from outside India, Air India Express has forty-eight, and Indigo has twenty-nine.

Every airline has a different ratio of pilots to aircraft — SpiceJet currently has the highest ratio at 9.4 pilots per aircraft. Akasa Air is close behind with a ratio of 9.33 pilots. Air India has 9.1, Air India Express has 8.8, IndiGo has 7.6 and Alliance Air has the lowest ratio with only 6 pilots.

The government has provided these statistics as a sample of what is happening with respect to pilot employment among major airlines in India today.

It is hoped that this information will provide insight into how much of the workforce being employed in the aviation sector throughout India is being effectively utilised.

Furthermore, the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has proposed additional regulation to enhance current restrictions on foreign airlines that operate into and out of India.

Among the proposed changes to existing regulations, the DGCA will now require digital registration of all foreign carriers operating into India; establish penalties for foreign carriers in violation of the requirements for registration in India; increase the legal responsibility of local representatives of foreign carriers operating in India; and establish a formalised process for foreign carriers to address their customer's complaints.