Pilot career guide
How Pilots Build Hours After a CPL — and Why They Have To
By We One Aviation Academy · · 9 min read
Quick Answer
Why do pilots build hours after a CPL, and how?
Because the licence threshold and the hiring threshold are different things. DGCA issues a Commercial Pilot Licence at 200 hours; what an airline asks for is set by that airline per vacancy and is not a regulatory figure. The reason the gap exists is published: the Ministry of Civil Aviation's position is that there is no shortage of pilots in India but there is a shortage of commanders. The five routes people use are instructing, general aviation and charter, self-funded hire, additional ratings, and a cadet or sponsored programme — and the one that pays you rather than charging you is instructing, which is why most Indian pilots take it.
Hour building, in one view
- •The licence requires 200 hours — Schedule II, Section J, Section J, para 1(e)
- •What an airline requires is set per vacancy by the airline, not by any regulation
- •The government's position: "There is no shortage of Pilots/Crews in the Indian Aviation Sector. However, there is a shortage of commanders on certain types of aircraft."
- •Five routes: instructing, charter and general aviation, self-funded hire, extra ratings, cadet programmes
- •Only instructing pays you while the hours accumulate
- •Recency trap: hours older than 5 years stop counting towards the licence
- •Once employed, flight time is capped at 1000 hours a year under the flight crew FDTL
Why 200 hours is not enough
A Commercial Pilot Licence is issued against 200 hours. That figure comes from Schedule II, Section J, Section J, para 1(e) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, and it is the whole of what the regulator asks for. So a reasonable person finishing training asks why anybody is talking about building more.
The answer is that the licence threshold and the hiring threshold are two different things set by two different parties. DGCA decides when you are qualified. An airline decides when it wants to employ you, it publishes that requirement per vacancy rather than once and for all, and it moves with the hiring cycle. You will not find an authoritative national figure for it, and this page deliberately does not print one — any number here would be wrong within a few months and would send someone down the wrong path with confidence.
What the government actually says about this
Here is the part that reframes the whole subject, and almost no page on hour building mentions it. Asked in Parliament whether India has a pilot shortage, the Ministry of Civil Aviation answered:
“There is no shortage of Pilots/Crews in the Indian Aviation Sector. However, there is a shortage of commanders on certain types of aircraft.”
— Ministry of Civil Aviation, PIB release of 2 August 2024
Read it carefully, because it explains both halves of the problem. There is no shortage of pilots, so holding a licence does not make you scarce and the first job is genuinely competitive. There is a shortage of commanders, so scarcity — and the money — sits at command level, which is reached with experience rather than with a licence.
So hour building is not a bureaucratic hurdle between you and a job. It is the beginning of the climb towards the thing that is actually scarce. That is a more useful way to choose between the routes below than asking which is quickest.
The supply side from the same release is worth knowing too: DGCA issued 5,710 Commercial Pilot Licences over the five-year period to July 2024, and a later release records issuance rising more than 2.5 times over eight years. More licence holders each year, and the scarcity unchanged at the top.
The five routes, and the catch in each
Most articles list these. Fewer say what is wrong with each one, which is the part worth reading.
| Route | How it works | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Flying Instructor Rating the Flying Instructor Rating in detail | You teach at a flying training organisation and log the hours you fly while instructing. It is the only route on this list that pays you while the hours accumulate rather than charging you for them, which is why it is the most common answer in India. | It is a qualification in its own right with its own training and its own examination — not something a CPL holder simply starts doing. It also ties you to a school rather than an airline for the duration. |
| General aviation and charter flying | Non-scheduled operators, corporate flight departments, aerial survey and similar work. Varied flying, often on types and into aerodromes an airline route network never touches. | Availability is the constraint and it is genuinely unpredictable. Work depends on demand rather than on a roster, so hours can arrive in bursts and then stop. |
| Self-funded hire | Renting an aircraft and flying it yourself. The fastest route in principle, because nothing depends on anyone hiring you. | Also the most expensive by a wide margin, and the hours are usually the least varied — circuits and local flying do not build the experience a selection board is looking at. Paying for hours is not the same as gaining experience. |
| Additional ratings and qualifications the Instrument Rating explained | An Instrument Rating, a multi-engine class rating, Multi-Crew Cooperation. These are not primarily hour-building, but they change what kind of pilot you are on paper, which is often what is actually holding an application back. | Easy to over-invest in. A rating you take because you were told to, before you know what you are applying for, can be money spent early for no gain. |
| A cadet or airline-sponsored route what a cadet programme does and does not change | Selected, trained and — in some programmes — placed by the airline, so the hour-building problem is handled inside the programme rather than left to you. | Selection is the hard part, and the licence requirements do not change: the same hours, papers, medical and RTR apply on every route. |
If there is a single practical conclusion, it is that paying for hours and earning hours are not equivalent even when the logbook total is identical. Instructing produces varied flying with responsibility attached; renting an aircraft for circuits produces a number. A selection board reads the first and counts the second.
The ceiling, once you are employed
Worth knowing before you plan a career around accumulating hours quickly: once you are flying for a scheduled operator, how fast they can accumulate is capped by regulation. Under Civil Aviation Requirement, Section 7 — Flight Crew Standards, Training and Licensing, Series 'J' Part III, Issue III dated 24 April 2019, Revision 1 dated 8 January 2024, applicable to all operators and flight crew members engaged in Scheduled Air Transport Operations:
| Period | Maximum flight time | Clause |
|---|---|---|
| 7 consecutive days | 35 hours | para 8.1 |
| 28 consecutive days | 100 hours | para 8.3 |
| 90 consecutive days | 300 hours | para 8.4 |
| 365 consecutive days | 1000 hours | para 8.5 |
A minimum weekly rest of 48 continuous hours including two local nights, with never more than 168 hours between the end of one weekly rest period and the start of the next (para 10.6). These are ceilings imposed for fatigue reasons rather than targets, and most pilots fly below them — but they do mean the climb to command is measured in years rather than months, whatever the hiring cycle is doing.
The trap: hours that stop counting
This one catches people who step away and come back. For the licence itself, the 200 hours must fall within the 5 years before you apply, and of which not less than 15 hours in the six months before applying.
So a pilot who flies 140 hours, stops for six years and returns has not paused — they have lost hours they paid for. If a gap is coming, that is worth knowing before it starts rather than afterwards. How the rest of the timeline works, including the papers that expire on their own schedule, is on our page on how long it takes.
Why no ATPL figure appears here
Because we cannot state one safely. The ATPL experience table in Schedule II, Section M was amended by G.S.R. 22(E) of 7 January 2020 and again by G.S.R. 731(E) of 10 October 2023. Any hours figure quoted from an older source may be out of date — confirm against the current notified Schedule before planning around it.
That is not evasion — it is the reason pages that do quote an ATPL hours figure should be treated carefully. Two amendments have moved that table since it was last widely copied, and a stale figure in a career plan is worse than no figure. Read the currently notified Schedule, or ask DGCA.
The same applies to instructor-rating thresholds, which vary between sources by a wide margin with no primary source behind any of them. Our Flying Instructor Rating guide withholds them for exactly that reason and tells you to get the current requirement from an approved organisation in writing.
People also ask
Why do pilots need to build hours after getting a CPL?
Because the licence and the job have different thresholds. 200 hours is what DGCA requires to issue a Commercial Pilot Licence; what an airline requires to hire you is set by the airline, published per vacancy, and is not a regulatory figure at all. The useful way to understand the gap is the Ministry of Civil Aviation's own position: "There is no shortage of Pilots/Crews in the Indian Aviation Sector. However, there is a shortage of commanders on certain types of aircraft." Hours are not scarce and neither are licence holders — command experience is. That is what the hours are ultimately being built towards.
What is the fastest way to build flying hours in India?
Self-funded hire, in principle, because nothing depends on anyone hiring you — and it is also the most expensive by a wide margin and usually the least varied flying. A Flying Instructor Rating is slower per month but pays you rather than charging you, and produces the kind of varied, responsible flying a selection board can read. Most people in India take the instructor route for exactly that reason.
How many hours do airlines want?
It is set by each airline per vacancy rather than by regulation, and it moves with the hiring cycle. We do not print a figure here because any number would be wrong within months. Read the current advertisement for the role you are targeting; that is the only reliable source, and it is public.
Do old flying hours still count?
Not for the licence. The 200 hours a CPL requires must fall within the 5 years before you apply, and of which not less than 15 hours in the six months before applying. A long gap does not merely slow you down — it can delete hours you have already paid for.
Is there a limit on how many hours a pilot can fly?
Yes, once you are flying commercially for a scheduled operator. Under Civil Aviation Requirement, Section 7 — Flight Crew Standards, Training and Licensing, Series 'J' Part III, Issue III dated 24 April 2019, Revision 1 dated 8 January 2024, flight time is capped at 35 hours in 7 consecutive days, 100 hours in 28 consecutive days, 300 hours in 90 consecutive days, 1000 hours in 365 consecutive days. So there is a published ceiling on how fast hours can accumulate in airline service, set for fatigue reasons.
Where this sits in the bigger picture
Before any of this: SPL from age 16, PPL from age 17, CPL from age 18, ATPL from age 21, and a Commercial Pilot Licence from 18. How the 200 hours themselves are built — and why the named components sit inside that total rather than on top of it — is on our CPL flight training page. What the career pays, and what is and is not published about it, is on the salary page.
Related guides
- For the route that pays you while the hours accumulate, read our Flying Instructor Rating guide
- For how the 200 hours themselves are built see our CPL flight training page
- For what is published about pilot pay and what is not see the pilot salary page
- For how long the whole route takes and what fixes it read how long it takes to become a pilot
- For choosing where to fly them see how to check an aviation academy