Airports Authority of India packs off Chennai’s oldest flying school from airport

Chennai: The Madras Flying Club (MFC), one of the oldest in the country, is set to move out of the city. The 80-year-old institution, which took part in several wars before and after Independence, has been asked to vacate its office and aircraft hangar from the Anna International Airport, which itself emerged from the operations of the club.
Recently, Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman V P Agarwal said the decision to ask the club to vacate was because of the risks it posed at a busy airport. He said that they would consider giving it an alternative facility in some other location. The AAI’s attempts to clip the club’s wings actually started earlier. Last year, some AAI officials abused an MFC pilot trainee and refused to clear landing certificates of trainee pilots, asking the club to stop operations without any written orders.
The MFC is one of the few places where one can get a commercial pilot licence for 17-18 lakh; most private institutes charge at least 30 lakh. A former MFC student, now with a leading airline, says the AAI move will help private aviation institutes mushroom in the state.
Many say the club fulfilled the aspirations of scores of middle-class pilots. “I would have never become a pilot but for the MFC,” said a senior Air India pilot who completed his Commercial Pilot Licence course here in the late 1980s.
22/04/12 Times of India

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