India's existing airlines as well as private aircraft owners and flight training institutes no longer need federal government approval to import planes, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said Thursday.
The move will be a relief to airlines such as Jet Airways (India) Ltd., SpiceJet Ltd. and InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.'s budget carrier IndiGo which until now needed to get their aircraft purchase plans cleared by a panel of bureaucrats from the aviation ministry and also by the minister himself. These companies will now need only get approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the sector regulator, a government statement said.
New airlines and aircraft importers will require federal no-objection certificates for flights and initial import approvals, it added.
21/03/13 Santanu Choudhury/Wall Street Journal
