BANGALORE: Much to the relief of Non Scheduled (air carrier) Operators (NSOP) the Indian aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has pulled back their proposal to have a minimum requirement of 3 aircraft rule for NSOPs.
In a circular on November 17, 2014, DGCA has decided to revise their earlier proposal in their Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR). In their circular, DGCA said that applicant for the grant of an NSOP shall “be in possession of at least one aircraft, either by outright purchase or on lease (without crew), which shall be registered in India and shall have a valid Certificate of Airworthiness in Normal Passenger Category.”
NSOP forum, Business Aircraft Operation Association (BAOA) had earlier opposed the proposal by aviation regulator. In a bid to increase regional connectivity by air, the new government at the Centre had explored proposals to make NSOPs as scheduled operators. But they had decided to introduce the ‘3 aircraft’ rule; a suggestion outrightly rejected by NSOPs.
The forum said that they will approach the civil aviation ministry and the Prime Minister to pull back this clause. “BAOA welcomes prompt action by DGCA to pull back proposed requirements of minimum 3 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,”Rohit Kapur, President of BAOA said in a statement.
BAOA had argued that if the 3 aircraft rule was implemented, then this would result in closure of at least 80 of the 120 registered NSOPs. They said that this would also lead to 4,000 job losses.
According to non scheduled operators, one of the basic differences in NSOP is that they can have fee paying passenger in their aircraft while private operator is solely used for private purposes such as big businessman and industry houses. There are 125 listed NSOP with 366 aircraft. In 2012-13, NSOP aircraft ferried a total of 1,18,681 passengers domestically.