Govt amends rules in favour of business jet operators

Heeding to the demands of business jet operators, DGCA has amended its proposal to bar them from commercial flying if they did not have a three-aircraft fleet and come up with a new rule reducing the minimum requirement of planes to one.

The aviation regulator had last month proposed a draft rule which would have permitted a non-scheduled air operator to launch operations with one plane or a helicopter but to raise the fleet size to at least three within a year of securing the flying licence. This had been severely criticized by the private air charter operators.

Official sources today said the requirement has now been changed to one aircraft only, as against three proposed earlier.

They said the amendment to the rule was carried out, not only due to demands by the business aircraft operators, but also to encourage air connectivity to remote places across the country by small operators, many of whom currently own only a single plane.

The new rule now says that an applicant who seeks a non-scheduled operator's permit should be "in possession of at least one aircraft, either by outright purchase or on lease (without crew)".

Reacting to the regulator's move to put in place the new rule, Rohit Kapur, President of the Business Aviation Operators Association (BAOA), said his organisation welcomed the "prompt action by DGCA to pull back proposed requirements of minimum three aircraft for Non Scheduled Operations".

"Such a step would have severely affected the industry, making operations unviable for more than two-third of the existing operators," he said.

Kapur said BAOA would work closely with DGCA to increase its safety oversight and the overall operational environment for non-scheduled operators in the country.

The air charter operators had earlier criticised the DGCA proposal to bar them from commercial flying if they did not have a three-aircraft fleet, saying the move made "very little business sense" and would retard connectivity to remote areas.