Short answer: a self-sponsored Airbus A320 type rating in India costs roughly ₹15–30 lakh. A Boeing 737 type rating runs slightly cheaper at ₹10–20 lakh. If you go through an airline cadet program instead, the type rating is bundled into your total training cost and you don't pay for it separately.
A note on these numbers before you read further: unlike DGCA exam fees, type rating pricing is not published by any regulator or standardised rate card. CAE, Airbus India Training Centre, and FlightSafety do not publish self-sponsored fees on their public websites — only airline-partnership pages that don't itemise cost. The ranges below are synthesised from multiple training providers and cross-checked against our own published cadet program research. Where we could not verify a figure against a primary source, we've said so rather than pretend otherwise.
| Aircraft | Self-sponsored cost (2026) | Included in cadet program? |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus A320 | ₹15 – ₹30 lakh | Yes — IndiGo, Air India cadet routes |
| Boeing 737 (NG / MAX) | ₹10 – ₹20 lakh | Yes — Akasa SkyCadet route |
| ATR 72-600 | Lower than jet ratings; institute-dependent | Sometimes — check FTO partnership |
🎯 Trying to decide between paying for your own type rating and going the cadet route? Talk to our aviation career experts — completely free.
Why there's no single "correct" number
Search this and every result disagrees. One site says A320 training costs ₹12–25 lakh. Another says ₹18–35 lakh. A third quotes simulator fees alone at ₹18–28 lakh — before ground school, checkride, or licensing are even added in.
This isn't sloppiness on any one site's part. It's a structural fact about type rating pricing in India: there is no published rate card to check against. DGCA regulates the training standard — ground school hours, simulator sessions, the final skill test — but it does not set or publish the price a training organisation charges for delivering it. Compare that to CPL theory exams, where DGCA's own Pariksha portal lists ₹2,500 per paper in black and white. No equivalent exists for type rating fees.
That means every number you see, including the ranges in this article, is a market estimate assembled from training provider websites and student reports — not a verified official figure. Treat any site (including this one) that states a type rating cost as a single exact number, rather than a range with a caveat, with some scepticism.
What we can verify: our own reporting on cadet pilot programs found that self-sponsored type ratings are consistently estimated in the ₹25–35 lakh band by cadet-route sources, and that IndiGo's Marigold Aviation partnership publicly structures a 2-month A320 type rating phase within its cadet pipeline — confirming the aircraft-specific training itself is a real, time-boxed, separately identifiable phase, even where the fee isn't published.
What a type rating actually is
A type rating is a DGCA-endorsed certification on your CPL or ATPL that authorises you to act as pilot-in-command or first officer on a specific aircraft type — an Airbus A320, a Boeing 737, an ATR 72. Your CPL alone does not let you fly these aircraft commercially. No airline will put you in the right seat of an A320 without one.
It sits after your CPL and before your first airline job (or, in a cadet program, is folded into the training pipeline before induction). Training covers aircraft-specific ground school, simulator sessions on a Level D full-flight simulator, and a final DGCA skill test.
A320 type rating cost in India — full breakdown
Search volume data shows this is the more searched of the two aircraft — unsurprising, since IndiGo alone operates the largest A320-family fleet in the country and Air India, Air India Express, and other carriers add to that base.
| Component | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Ground school (theory, CBT modules) | ₹60,000 – ₹1.2 lakh |
| Simulator training (Level D full-flight sim) | ₹2.5 – ₹5.5 lakh, sometimes quoted higher depending on hours included |
| DGCA written knowledge test | ₹6,000 – ₹12,000 |
| DGCA skill test / checkride | ₹1.2 – ₹1.8 lakh |
| Licence endorsement fee | ₹22,000 – ₹35,000 |
| All-in range (multiple sources) | ₹15 – ₹30 lakh |
The spread is driven mainly by simulator hours and provider. Programs abroad — the UAE, the Philippines, Vietnam — are sometimes cited as cheaper, but that comparison is incomplete without factoring in travel, visa, and accommodation costs, plus any DGCA conversion steps if you train under a foreign authority.
Training providers commonly cited for A320 in India include CAE (Delhi, and Bangalore/Gondia through its broader Indian operations), Airbus India Training Centre in Bangalore (a joint venture between Airbus and Mahindra), FlightSafety International's Mumbai and Hyderabad operations, and smaller Gondia-based providers. None of these publish self-sponsored pricing publicly — confirm current fees directly with the provider before committing money.
B737 type rating cost in India — full breakdown
Boeing 737 training is the second major track, relevant primarily because Akasa Air's entire fleet is Boeing 737 MAX, and its SkyCadet cadet program builds its whole training pipeline around this aircraft.
| Component | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Ground school + simulator + checkride (bundled) | ₹10 – ₹20 lakh most commonly cited |
| Premium / international programs | Up to ₹22 – ₹30 lakh depending on facility |
| Accommodation & living costs during training | ₹2 – ₹4 lakh |
| Travel & visa, if training abroad | ₹50,000 – ₹2 lakh |
B737 programs in India are commonly delivered through CAE's simulator training operations and other DGCA-approved centres offering B737NG and MAX-specific courses, alongside smaller providers positioned as budget-friendly alternatives for self-sponsored candidates.
Why B737 tends to price lower than A320 in some quotes: fewer operators in India currently fly Boeing narrow-bodies at scale compared to the Airbus-dominant IndiGo/Air India Express fleets, so provider capacity and demand dynamics differ. Treat this as a general market observation, not a guaranteed saving — get a written quote before assuming either aircraft is cheaper for you specifically.
Self-sponsored vs airline-bonded type rating — the distinction that matters most
This is where most competitor content blurs two very different financial decisions into one number, and it's the single biggest source of reader confusion in this space.
Self-sponsored type rating. You pay ₹15–30 lakh (A320) or ₹10–20 lakh (B737) out of pocket, with no job attached. You're betting that a type rating on your CPL makes you meaningfully more hireable in open recruitment. It sometimes does — but there is no guarantee an airline hires you afterward, and a type rating on the wrong aircraft for the airlines actually hiring is money that bought you nothing. Our own cadet program research calls this "the single riskiest financial decision in Indian aviation."
Airline-bonded / cadet-included type rating. The airline pays for (or heavily subsidises) your type rating as part of a structured cadet program, in exchange for a post-induction service bond — commonly 5–7 years, as documented in our cadet pilot program guide. You don't carry the ₹15–30 lakh cost directly, but you're committed to that airline for years, and leaving early typically requires repaying the training cost.
| Self-sponsored | Airline-bonded (cadet) | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | ₹15 – 30 lakh (A320) / ₹10 – 20 lakh (B737), paid by you | Bundled into cadet program cost, often airline-subsidised |
| Job outcome | Not guaranteed — open market competition | Conditional Letter of Intent, high completion-to-induction rate |
| Commitment | None | 5–7 year service bond typical |
| Aircraft choice | Yours — but must match what airlines are hiring for | Fixed by the airline (A320 for IndiGo, B737 MAX for Akasa) |
| Best for | Candidates with existing airline interest or a specific target carrier | Candidates prioritising placement certainty over cost and flexibility |
The rule of thumb our counsellors give aspirants: don't pay for a self-sponsored type rating speculatively. Pay for one only once you have realistic, specific airline interest — a scheduled interview, a verbal indication, a recruitment drive you're shortlisted for — that tells you which aircraft to train on. Training first and hoping for interest afterward is the gamble; training after interest exists is a calculated bet.
🎯 Not sure whether a self-sponsored type rating makes sense for your profile, or whether a cadet route is the safer bet? Talk to our aviation career experts — completely free.
A320 vs B737 — which should you choose?
If you're self-sponsoring and don't have a specific airline lined up, the honest answer is: match the aircraft to the airline you're realistically targeting, not to whichever type rating looks cheaper.
- A320 makes sense if you're targeting IndiGo, Air India, or Air India Express — currently the dominant Airbus narrow-body operators in India, giving an A320 rating the broadest addressable job market domestically.
- B737 makes sense if you're specifically targeting Akasa Air, whose entire fleet is Boeing 737 MAX, or you're open to opportunities with international 737 operators.
Search demand data reflects this imbalance too — "a320 type rating cost in india" gets meaningfully more monthly searches than the equivalent B737 query, tracking the larger Airbus-operator base in the country.
Neither aircraft rating is inherently "better." What matters is whether the airlines you can realistically get in front of are flying it.
Financing a type rating
Type rating costs sit in the same range as a mid-sized personal or education loan, and several nationalised banks and NBFCs extend pilot training loans that can cover type rating fees alongside CPL costs — similar to the loan structures covered in our Pilot Training Cost in India guide.
A few practical points specific to type rating financing:
- Avoid third-party agents or "consultants." Pay training providers directly. This space has attracted fraudulent operators, and intermediary payment is a common red flag.
- Ask about group/batch discounts. Some providers reduce per-trainee cost for batches of 4–6 candidates enrolling together.
- Factor in accommodation and travel separately — these aren't part of the headline course fee and can add ₹2–4 lakh if you're training away from home, or more if training abroad.
- If you're weighing a cadet route instead, financing is often structurally easier — airline-backed programs tend to unlock 90%+ loan coverage that self-sponsored trainees can struggle to access. See our cadet pilot program cost comparison for the full loan-and-bond picture.
Type rating pricing in India isn't standardised, and no regulator publishes it — which is exactly why so many sites quote wildly different numbers. Get a written quote from the training provider, confirm what's actually included, and time your spend to real airline interest rather than hope.
