What are your product/service offerings for the business aviation sector?
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Capt Arun Sharma
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Aviators is focused on aircraft and helicopter sales, charter and management. We offer a turnkey solution from purchase to startup of operations for any individual or a corporate flight department. Having started out as an aviation products and services supplier, Aviators has today grown and matured into a fully fledged operations company covering the entire gamut.
Business aviation sector in India has been facing turbulent times for some time now. How do you foresee the situation changing for the better in the near future?
I think we had almost touched the bottom in the past five years of non productive decisions. A few years ago the projected growth of the aircraft was 1800 aircraft in five years. However, due to the unfriendly policies it has now reduced the growth level to 900 aircraft by 2020. Most of the aircraft are under legal knots of their usage as defined in the laws that are not clear. This has led to numerous interpretations and most of the operators had their aircraft seized due to lack of clarity of ownership usage. The new government has a great opportunity to make things right. A few key topics that they should concentrate would be: streamlining tax laws for importing of an aircraft; increase in general aviation parking; mobilising usage of the 400 unused airports in the country; increasing the number of flight schools; cancellation of tax/ royalty on MRO and services provided at airports; reduction in sales tax for ATF at all airports; aircraft handling charges – the current charges for general aviation is extremely high thus having a reverse impact on charter operations and operators.
I choose to believe that the new government will definitely take this issue up and ensure that they set things right for the industry.
Have you witnessed any interesting trends in recent times?
Yes, one emerging trend that we see today is that many smaller companies are pooling in their resources together to purchase an aircraft. Owning an aircraft is no more considered as an unaffordable affair. Many small and medium scale companies feel that pooling in their resources to get an aircraft is necessary, primarily because they feel the need to save time for their travel and are looking for management companies like Aviators for advise on setup and startup.
What are your growth expectations for this sector?
Potential for growth surely exists. These are however dependent of stable policies and tax structure favourable for capital investment. If there is a fluctuation in the policies and tax structures, it becomes a hurdle for interested investors to plan out their venture. But now, with the new government in place, we are expecting the errors to be corrected and steps to be taken for improving investment environment for the aviation industry.
Aviators currently operates a PC12 aircraft for charter which is being flown around 800 hours per year and now intend to add another aircraft to our charter operations. We also expect our aircraft sales to move up some more points than last year.
