Compare DGCA flying schools
Your flight school decides whether you finish in two years or five. Here are all 41 DGCA-approved flying training organisations with the facts that actually predict your finish date — DGCA's own A/B/C ranking, fleet, bases, approval validity and the weather you will be flying in — straight from DGCA's published documents, warts and all.
Aircraft-to-student ratio is the single best predictor of finishing on time, but DGCA does not publish student numbers — the fleet shown here is one half of that sum, and only the school can give you the other. Ask how many aircraft are serviceable today. Last transcribed 27 Jul 2026.
New to picking a school? Read how to choose a school that finishes on time, then build your all-in budget.
How it works
- 01
Filter to your options
Filter by DGCA ranking category or region, search by school, city, state or aircraft type, and sort by rank or fleet size.
- 02
Read the hard numbers
DGCA's category and rank, single- and multi-engine counts, approval validity, DGCA's own remarks, and the seasonal weather at each base — plus a live report from the nearest station.
- 03
Verify, then cost it
Confirm the school on DGCA's official documents, ask how many aircraft are serviceable today, then put its quote into the cost worksheet.
Common questions
How do I check whether a flying school is DGCA approved?+
Open DGCA's official list of approved Flying Training Organisations — every school on this page is transcribed from it, with its DGCA approval number and validity dates. If a school is not on that list, it is not a DGCA-approved FTO. We link the source at the bottom of the directory so you can confirm it yourself.
Does DGCA rank flying schools, and why do some show no category?+
Yes. DGCA publishes a ranking that sorts FTOs into Categories A, B and C, reissued twice a year (1 April and 1 October). This directory carries the April 2026 assessment: 35 FTOs were ranked and just one reached Category A. The other six were excluded, and we show DGCA's stated reason on each row — four had not completed 18 months since approval, one had no valid approval at the assessment date, and one is recorded as non-operational with no flying since February 2023. Those exclusion notes are the most useful part of the document.
Why are there no fees on this page?+
Because a single headline fee is the most misleading number in pilot training. Schools include wildly different things — some quote flying hours only, others bundle ground school, accommodation and exams. Rather than invent per-school fees, we give you an itemised worksheet in the cost calculator where you enter the quote you were actually given and see the true all-in cost, including what the quote leaves out.
What actually decides whether I finish on time?+
Serviceable aircraft per student. A school with many students chasing few flyable aircraft will bottleneck you no matter how good its classrooms look. DGCA publishes the fleet (shown here) but not student numbers, so ask the school for its current aircraft-to-student ratio and how many aircraft are serviceable today, then compare against the fleet above. Weather matters too: monsoon and fog months differ sharply by base.
Do schools pay to appear or rank higher here?+
No. Every school gets a free profile and a right of reply, and there is no paid tier that could change ordering, filtering or any figure shown. We never take a per-student commission either, because that would recreate exactly the agent incentive this site exists to fight.