BAOA is looking at the holistic growth of the BA industry in India...

The stakeholders of Business Aviation in India who operate aircraft under Non-Scheduled Operators Permit (NSOP) want the government should give them the status of an organised industry so that their issues can also be kept at par with the scheduled operators. In a candid interview, Gp. Capt. R K Bali (Retd.) Managing Director, Business Aircraft Operators Association (BAOA), talks with Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World about the key initiatives taken by his body with the MOCA which is yielding good results, but still, some loose screws need to be tightened and require prompt attention by the policymakers and regulators for holistic growth of the sector.

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How do you analyze the business aviation market post-pandemic? What steps are being taken for the sector to grow up to its potential?

After the pandemic, there is much growth and demand that charter or private flying we need to tap into this demand, and going forward optimize business aviation which means chartering the aircraft, owning the aircraft, for making business more efficient, more cost-effective. And, one way of doing that is seeing that the growth is as per the potential which can only be achieved if we do some consolidation in the industry. And one thing which we are recently doing & accepted by the ministry on 10th October 2022 was fractional ownership which is just quite a different model than what it was earlier. We have seen what lessons even US has learned from it. Because they started somewhere in 2004 and 2005. We have recently issued guidelines and see that going forward.

These are:

▲ Fractional Ownership: Through fractional ownership, one can reduce the cost of owning & operating the aircraft. Thereby, more growth will take place because people will be spending less money on the aircraft which they use to do it before.

▲ Rationalization of Taxes: The customs duty or import duty which is very high on private owning, is 28 % +3% cess, which adds to 31 %. We have already been taken up by the ministry and they are quite convinced because there has been hardly any import. There is no point in having such a high tax barrier that doesn't allow the aircraft to be owned in the private category. Our recommendation to the ministry is to rationalize it and make it 12 % while for NSOP its 5% which is ok. So, this is the change that we are trying to bring.