Four airlines, four ways of answering the same question. Three of them will show you a number before you apply. This page says which, where the number is printed, and how far each one can be trusted.
A cadet programme is the packaged route into an airline seat, and the first thing worth knowing about the four Indian ones is which of them will tell you the price before you apply.
A cadet programme is one contract covering the whole run from no licence to an airline seat. Inside it you get ground school for the DGCA papers, ab initio flying to a commercial pilot licence at roughly 200 hours with an instrument and multi-engine rating, and then the type rating for the jet that airline flies. It ends with induction as a Junior First Officer, subject to your performance and the airline's own requirements.
That bundling is why a cadet number looks so much bigger than a flying school's. A CPL on its own leaves you licensed and unemployed; the type rating that makes you employable is a separate cheque later. A cadet programme puts both in one price, adds a selection process at the front and a service commitment at the back.
Every rupee figure we publish on the cost pages carries one of four labels, and the label travels with the figure everywhere it goes.
| Programme | Type | Best figure anybody publishes | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| SpiceJet: Cadet Pilot Programme | Q400 or B737 | ₹89.5 lakhPublished | the Spice Star Academy admission and fee page |
| IndiGo: Cadet Pilot Programme | A320 | ₹94.10 lakh to about ₹1.10 crorePublished | each partner flying school's own fee page |
| Akasa Air: SkyCadet | B737 MAX | ₹97.4 lakh to ₹1.06 croreReported | a capture of Akasa's own application FAQ, not independently confirmed |
| Air India: Fly High | A320 or B737 | ₹1.1 crore to ₹1.5 croreReported | the AIFTA academy brochure and selected cadets, depending on the route |
Transcribed from the cadet section of our verified cost reference, checked 14 June 2026, with the Air India figures from a community sweep the day after. Each programme page below names the exact page or document every figure was read from.
SpiceJet is the only one that prints a programme fee on an open page, and it prints the instalment ladder with it: ₹89.5 lakhPublished of tuition before tax, with the CPL and the type rating inside that number.
IndiGo charges nothing itself. You pay whichever partner flying school you are routed to, and most of those schools publish their own fee: from ₹94.10 lakhPublished at the cheapest India-based route up to about ₹1.10 crorePublished for the overseas ones. As an airline-stamped number, an IndiGo programme fee is Not publishedon any IndiGo page, checked 14 June 2026.
Akasa Air states in public only that the SkyCadet fee is shared inside the application form, and it disclaims the numbers agencies quote for it. The band our sources recorded from its own application FAQ is ₹97.4 lakh to ₹1.06 croreReported.
Air India publishes nothing at all. Its cadet portal says the training cost is provided once a candidate is enrolled, and its partner academies use the same language. It is Undisclosed by the airline, Reported by cadets, and the reported figures run ₹1.1 crore to ₹1.5 croreReported depending on whether you fly in India or the United States.
Star Air runs no cadet programme. It hires pilots who already hold a CPL, so there is no cadet fee to find. Vistara has no separate programme since the merger, and its cadets are absorbed into Air India's.
The four programmes ask for broadly the same things: Physics and Mathematics at 10+2, an English requirement, a DGCA Class 1 medical you can actually pass, and an upper age limit that varies by airline and by intake. Each programme sets its own cut-offs and changes them between intakes, so the eligibility line on the airline's own advertisement for the intake you are applying to is the only one worth reading. We do not restate them here, because a stale eligibility rule costs a candidate an application.
The shape is common across all four. An online application and a screening test come first, usually reasoning, numerical work and English rather than aviation knowledge. Then a computerised aptitude assessment, then a psychometric stage and a group exercise, then an interview, and a Class 1 medical somewhere in the middle. IndiGo's routes use an assessment with its own separate fee, and SpiceJet charges an application fee and an assessment fee on top of tuition. Every airline reserves the right to change the stages between intakes.
The written papers are the same DGCA papers everyone else sits, whichever route you take, so the exam preparation does not change with the programme you pick.
Three things are missing from every one of these programmes, and no source we trust fills them in. A lock-in period or a penalty amount is Not publishedby any of the four airlines, checked 14 June 2026. The rupee amount of tax on tuition is Not publishedon any operator's fee sheet, checked 14 June 2026, because the operators write plus applicable taxes and stop there. And for three of the four airlines a programme total is Not publishedanywhere the airline speaks for itself, checked 14 June 2026. Ask for all three in writing before any money moves.
SpiceJet publishes a full fee on an open page. IndiGo's partner flying schools each publish their own, because IndiGo charges no programme fee itself. Akasa states the fee only inside its application form, and Air India says the cost is shared once you are enrolled.
In these four programmes, yes. That is the main reason a cadet number looks so much larger than a plain CPL at a flying school, where the type rating is a separate step you pay for later.
No. The published fees are quoted before tax, and none of the operators states a rupee amount for it. We do not print one either, because an inferred tax figure is not a published price.
Every cadet programme ties you to the airline for a fixed period. No airline publishes the lock-in length or a penalty amount, so the only figure anywhere in our sources is a deposit reported by Air India cadets. Ask for the bond terms in writing before you pay anything.