From first DGCA exam to CPL: each stage, in numbers

What stands between the first paper and the licence

Schools advertise twelve to eighteen months. If you train in India, plan for two to four years, because a crowded school has more cadets than aircraft that can fly.

The papers are where your own work moves the date. Clear them before or alongside the flying, because a paper still pending when the hours are done holds up the whole licence.

• The papers: Air Regulations, Meteorology, Air Navigation, Technical General and Technical Specific, plus the RTR(A) radio licence, a separate exam.
• The flying: About 200 hours. Aircraft, instructors and weather set the pace more than you do.
• The licence file: Medicals, the eGCA application and DGCA's processing. A clean file usually takes one to two months.

Exam candidates against licences issued

That's about fourteen exam candidates for every licence issued, and it isn't a pass rate. The candidates include people repeating a paper, pilots converting a foreign licence and ATPL candidates, and a 2025 licence was started years earlier.

More licences, and the jobs question

DGCA issued 578 CPLs in 2020 and 1,165 in 2022. 2025 set the record with 1,652, and the first half of 2026 alone produced 1,331.

More licences haven't meant more first jobs. In 2023 the head of DGCA put it at about one trained pilot in three out of work. Hiring picked up after the December 2025 duty-time crisis, when IndiGo planned more than a thousand pilot hires, but it runs in cycles, so plan for a wait between licence and seat.