India's new flight school contract rules: what must be disclosed before you pay

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued Flying Training Circular 02 of 2026 on 5 October, the country's first set of rules on what the agreement between a flying training organization (FTO) and its trainee has to contain. Every DGCA-approved school in India is covered.

The circular sets what a flight school must put in writing before it takes a rupee.

What the school has to disclose
Before enrollment, the agreement has to state the course and training requirements, the full fee structure and payment schedule, and the refund policy with its conditions. It also has to cover what happens if a trainee discontinues or transfers, how training records are released, and how a trainee raises a grievance.

The circular goes further than disclosure. It asks for fees to be paid progressively rather than in one lump sum, and for any mid-course change to fees or essential terms to be disclosed. Money paid but not used has to be treated fairly.

The last clause is the one with teeth. Financial or contractual problems must not cut across the quality, continuity or safety of the training itself.

The Redbird order
The circular reads as an answer to Redbird Flight Training Academy, the largest flight school in South Asia. On 16 July, DGCA barred it from admitting new students until 31 August 2027, after a spot inspection on 8 July.

The order described prolonged delays in training, a unilateral change in training charges to ₹3,000 per flying hour partway through a course, and refunds that came up short. It also faulted revised agreements that added charges, and the treatment of trainees who refused to sign them. The disclosure list reads as a direct response to that order.

Where the circular stops
DGCA is explicit that it will not referee commercial disputes. The guidelines are not intended "to regulate every aspect of the private contractual relationship between an FTO and a trainee or to make DGCA an adjudicating authority for purely commercial disputes." The regulator has set what the document must say. The dispute itself stays where it was.

The half it cannot reach
A large share of Indian pilot training happens outside India, which is where the circular runs out. DGCA issued 1,331 commercial pilot licenses in the first six months of 2026. Of those, 540 trained at foreign schools — just over 40 percent, after three years of decline.

In a public notice on 12 December 2025, the regulator said it has no role in the regulation, oversight, quality, progress or completion of training abroad. Disputes over a delayed course or an unpaid refund, it said, stay between the student and the foreign school.

Its advice to students was to check the school's approvals, safety record, training quality, fees, refund policy and contract terms before enrolling.

How to use the list
Read the two documents together and the circular works as a buyer's checklist as much as a rule for schools. Every item on that list is a question to ask before signing.

Those questions work anywhere: a school in India, the Philippines or Australia keeps the same records and writes the same refund clause.

DGCA's own instructions to trainees are the same in both documents. Read the agreement and the refund conditions before enrolling, keep a signed copy and the receipts, and ask the school in writing about any term you cannot read plainly. Our guide to choosing a flight school covers the rest of the due diligence.

The test of the circular is whether Indian schools now publish refund terms a trainee can act on. For anyone weighing a school in India against one abroad, it settles the same question: if the refund policy is not in writing before the first payment, you are training on someone else's terms.