From the Editor-in-Chief

Dear Readers,

Recently, there were some headlines in the media which were quite amusing. The Congress party was alleging that the entire fleet of business aircraft (fixed wing and rotary wing) has been booked by the BJP party and as a result, their party men were unable to move with the needed mobility in the year of elections - 2019. This interestingly highlights yet another established factor as to how important the Business Aviation sector is. It brought to the forefront that Business Aviation does extensively support the very basis of democracy, well beyond the roles it already plays towards nation building. Not surprisingly, Business Aviation must demand its due from the governments of the days.

This issue of BizAvIndia highlights the various key roles Business Aviation plays. By way of contributing towards employment opportunities in the country, towards skill development within the society, towards achievement of better business goals by enterprises and corporations thereby towards the growth of the economy, towards the revitalisation of MRO industry which can further help ‘Make in India’ as a final result.

There has been a significant development in the recent past, in the domain of the Indian civil aviation industry, that is likely to have a profound impact on Business Aviation and that is the announcement by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) of UDAN III as part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). Described as a ‘Game Changer’, in this scheme, there are two special features that are of particular significance to Business Aviation. First is the clearance by MoCA for operation, by single engine aircraft, for carriage of passengers, something that was not permitted so far. The other feature is the introduction of sea plane services to exploit the large number of water bodies by way of lakes and rivers spread across the entire country, to significantly enhance regional connectivity in UDAN III. In the segment of sea plane services as well, single engine aircraft are being permitted to operate. There is a detailed review of UDAN III by Gp Capt R.K. Bali (Retd), Managing Director, BAOA, in this issue of the magazine.

Capability wise, Business Aviation is likely to go through a major transformation if the ongoing efforts in the United States (US) by several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to develop supersonic business jets (SSBJ), finally becomes a reality. With the help of SSBJ, travel time by business executives will be cut down significantly and ownership of this new and novel platform will provide a far more respectable status symbol for the corporate world. In an article in this issue, Joseph Noronha has reviewed the efforts put in, the technological and financial challenges involved and the progress made so far by the various OEMs across the world to break into the supersonic regime with business jets.

All this and much more in this issue of BizAvIndia. Wish you happy landings!

J. Baranwal
Editor-in-Chief