The cheapest published route onto the IndiGo cadet programme is at an airfield in Madhya Pradesh, and the academy that runs it publishes that cadet price while keeping its ordinary licence course fee off its own site.
Dhana is an airfield in Sagar district, in the middle of Madhya Pradesh, and the academy there has become one of the most searched flying schools in the country for a reason that has little to do with its own courses. It is the cheapest published route onto the IndiGo cadet programme, so students comparing airline cadet options end up here regardless of where they live.
That produces an odd split in what the academy discloses. Its cadet programme has a full price on its own page, twenty months from the ground school to the A320 type rating, which is more openness than most Indian flying schools manage about anything. Its ordinary licence course, the one you would take if you were self-funding without an airline attached, has no price on that same site.
So the two rows below sit at different levels of trust on purpose. One you can open and read yourself. The other comes from listing sites and should be treated as a starting point for an enquiry rather than a quote. And the two must never be added: the cadet figure already contains a licence and a type rating.
| What | Our source records |
|---|---|
| Registered name | Chimes Aviation Academy, which is also how it is commonly known |
| Bases | Dhana, Sagar district, Madhya Pradesh |
| Aircraft | None named in our source, so we name none |
| Courses | Commercial pilot licence with instrument and multi-engine ratings. IndiGo cadet pilot programme |
| Figures checked | 14 June 2026 |
| What you pay for | Amount | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone licence course, with instrument and multi-engine | ₹37,75,000Reported | The academy's own course page carries no price, so this figure has never been seen on it. |
| The IndiGo cadet programme through this academy, twenty months all in | ₹94,10,000Published | Ground school, the licence with instrument and multi-engine, and the A320 type rating, in one published price. |
| Selection assessment fee | ₹30,000Published | Paid to sit the assessment, before any offer and before any instalment. |
| Hostel, per month | ₹18,000Reported | Over an eighteen month course that is a serious cumulative line, and it is charged monthly rather than up front. |
Standalone licence course, with instrument and multi-engine: read from aggregator course listings, not the academy's own site, checked 14 June 2026. The IndiGo cadet programme through this academy, twenty months all in: read from the academy's own cadet programme page, checked 14 June 2026. Selection assessment fee: read from the academy's own cadet programme page, checked 14 June 2026. Hostel, per month: read from student-reported hostel charges at the campus, checked 14 June 2026.
The cadet route starts with the airline's selection and its paid assessment, and the academy places you only once you have cleared it, which is why the assessment fee is a real cost before there is any offer to accept.
The standalone licence course is a direct admission to the academy with its own medical and eligibility requirements and no airline in the loop.
The standalone licence course fee is not on the academy's own site anywhere, which is why the figure above is Reported rather than Published.
The tax position on the cadet price is not stated as an amount, and neither is any bond or service commitment attached to the airline route.
Nothing above is the whole cost of becoming a pilot. Our pilot training cost in India page has the full stack from the medicals to the type rating, and CPL course fees in India puts this school's licence figure next to the rest of the market. This school also appears on our IndiGo cadet pilot programme page, where the airline side of the same route is set out.
Because the cadet programme is sold against an airline's selection and has to be comparable with the other partner schools, while the ordinary course is sold by enquiry. It is a common pattern in this market and it is why the two rows above carry different labels.
It is the cheapest published one in our data. Every other confirmed partner route costs more, and the ones that cost most are the routes that fly you overseas.
That is exactly what the standalone course is, and it is a different financial shape from the cadet programme: a smaller number now and a large separate type-rating purchase later, with no airline place attached to either.