One Indian airline prints its cadet fee on an open page, instalment by instalment, with the refundable parts marked. Here is that ladder, what sits outside it, and the one number the fee sheet still does not give you.
SpiceJet is the one Indian cadet programme that prints its fee on an open page, instalment by instalment, which makes it the only cadet number you can check before you apply.
The SpiceJet cadet route runs through Spice Star Academy: ground school for the DGCA papers, ab initio flying to a commercial pilot licence with instrument and multi-engine work, and then a type rating on the aircraft you will fly, either the Q400 turboprop or the Boeing 737. The commercial licence training and the type rating both sit inside the headline fee, which is the part that makes a cadet number look large next to a flying school's.
| What you pay | Amount | What the fee sheet says about it |
|---|---|---|
| Total tuition, before tax | ₹89,50,000Published | Covers the licence training and the type rating. |
| Instalment 1, on admission | ₹10,00,000Published | Non-refundable. |
| Instalment 2 | ₹30,00,000Published | 10 lakh of it refundable if you fail the private licence stage. |
| Instalment 3 | ₹25,00,000Published | 5 lakh of it refundable if you fail the instrument rating. |
| Instalment 4 | ₹24,50,000Published | Non-refundable. |
| Tax on tuition | Not publishedon the fee sheet, checked 14 June 2026 | The sheet says plus applicable taxes and gives no figure. |
Read from the academy's own admission and fee page, checked 14 June 2026.
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | ₹5,000Published | Paid to apply, before selection. |
| Assessment fee | ₹20,000Published | Paid for the selection assessment itself. |
| Category-one merit scholarship | minus ₹30,00,000Published | Awarded on merit. Do not budget as though you will get it. |
| Programme with the management degree variant | ₹91,50,000Published | The alternative bundle, before tax. |
| Training extension, per hour | ₹14,500Published | What extra flying costs if you need it. |
| Housing beyond the first eight months, per month | ₹28,000Published | The first eight months are inside the programme. |
| Medicals, radio telephony and licence issue | ₹60,000 to ₹1,50,000Estimated | Borne by the cadet, and a build-up rather than a published price. |
Two things, and both matter. The tax on tuition is Not publishedas a rupee amount, checked 14 June 2026, and on a fee of this size it is not a rounding error. A lock-in period or a penalty amount is Not publishedby SpiceJet or the academy, checked 14 June 2026, as it is at every Indian cadet programme.
A cadet who takes the extension hours, pays housing past the eighth month and adds the statutory costs will pay more than the published tuition, and a cadet who wins the scholarship will pay substantially less. Those are the two ends of the same published sheet, which is why we publish the ladder rather than a single all-in number.
SpiceJet sets its eligibility per intake: Physics and Mathematics at 10+2, an English requirement, an age band, and a DGCA Class 1 medical you can pass. Read the eligibility on the advertisement for the intake you are applying to.
Selection is an online application against the application fee, an assessment against the assessment fee, then a psychometric and interview stage with a medical alongside. Only after that does the first instalment fall due, and the first instalment is the non-refundable one.
The academy publishes tuition of 89.5 lakh before tax, with the commercial licence and the type rating inside it. That is a Published figure on an open fee page, which makes it the only Indian cadet fee you can check before you apply.
Partly, and the carve-outs are Published on the fee sheet. It marks the first instalment non-refundable, 10 lakh of the second refundable if you fail the private licence stage and 5 lakh of the third refundable if you fail the instrument rating, and the fourth non-refundable. Read the current sheet before you pay, because carve-outs change.
The Published category-one merit scholarship reduces tuition by 30 lakh, which takes a strong cadet to roughly 59.5 lakh before tax and extras. That last figure is our own arithmetic, so read it as Estimated, and it is awarded on merit, so do not plan a budget around it.
No, the tax is Undisclosed. The fee sheet says plus applicable taxes and states no rupee amount, so on a fee this size there is a material unstated cost on top of the Published 89.5 lakh, and you should ask for it in writing.