Pursuing a Career in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering

The civil aviation industry in India has witnessed a remarkable growth in recent times. With hundreds of cargo and passenger airplanes operating country-wide, aircraft maintenance business is enormous and still expanding, thus, enhancing the scope of professional growth for the aircraft aviation engineers. To train up the prospective engineers, several aircraft maintenance engineering colleges have been opened. Those who want to build up a career in the aviation industry can consider pursuing a course in aircraft maintenance engineering.

 What are the Job Responsibilities of an   Aircraft Maintenance Engineer?

The prime responsibility of an aircraft maintenance engineer is to ensure that an aircraft is in working condition. From conducting inspections, making repairs, supervising scheduled maintenance, upgrading aircrafts to troubleshooting problems, an aircraft maintenance engineer needs to take care of everything. The professional needs to be ready to work for long hours if situation demands so. 

An airplane maintenance engineer needs to work with specialized aviation equipment, diagnostic tools, x-ray devices, power tools and computers. They may need to work on ladders or scaffolds. 

Aircraft Maintenance Engineering should not be Mistaken as Aerospace Engineering

Many people tend to mistake aircraft maintenance engineering with aerospace or aeronautical engineering, but they are not the same. While the aircraft maintenance engineering is all about maintaining and keeping an airplane in perfect working order, aerospace engineering involves designing and manufacturing airplanes. Prior to taking off, an aircraft needs approval from a certified airline maintenance engineer. The professional needs to inspect the airline and ensure that it is fit to take its flight safely. 

AME: A 3-Year Program

AME is a 3-year training course with 2 streams. They are: Avionics and Mechanical. While the former encompasses radio navigation, instrument and electrical systems, the latter deals with piston, jet engines, heavy and light aircrafts. Those who want to specialize in aircraft maintenance engineering should pursue the course from a reputed college. They need to search the internet to find out the list of best AME colleges and then know about the eligibility criteria set by each of these colleges. As AME is a licence-based program, one needs to sit for the Aircraft Maintenance Licensing Examination that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducts on completion of the 3-year course.

Job Opportunities

With so many airline companies running their flights in India, the career opportunities for airline maintenance engineers are ample. Again, with the introduction of new flights, the demand for AME professionals is increasing day by day. Looking from this perspective, one should not be worried about jobs on completion of AME. The students can consider joining the aircraft manufacturing and maintenance companies after completing the course.

Handsome Remuneration

AME jobs offer high remuneration to the employees. The salary increases with the increase in experience and can even reach up to lakhs. 

Colleges Offering AME Programs

As already mentioned, many colleges in India are now offering AME courses. One should do in-depth research on the internet to find out the list of best AME collegesand extract detailed information on them.Though the pre-requisite qualification needed to pursue the course is same in all the aircraft maintenance colleges, the admission criteria vary with colleges. The students need to make sure that the institute they have chosen for pursuing the course is a DGCA approved college.

One of the benefits of pursuing Aircraft Maintenance Engineering course from a reputed college is that the students get more job opportunities as most of these renowned institutions have collaboration with the top aviation companies. The total fee of the program varies according to the fame of the college and the services rendered during the course.