From the Editor-in-Chief

Business aviation is a vital cog for economies and recent times have sprinkled enough attention on the same. However, the growth and awareness that business aviation enjoys, remain scattered in bits and pieces across the globe. While the views still vary on that, the country has still not brought its attention to the business aviation (BizAv) industry as a fruitful liability. The industry has the potential to accelerate India in its journey towards becoming a $5 Trillion economy but is currently bogged down by various concerns waiting to be addressed at the earliest.

In this issue of BizAvIndia, Bobby Chadha, Chairman and Managing Director, SRC Aviation Pvt Ltd, highlights the crucial role of connectivity for a country’s economic growth and how the BizAv industry needs to be nurtured to make it easier for global business to connect with India. From the high operational costs, challenges in ease of doing business, complications with tax structures, inadequate infrastructure and complicated processes to obtain operating licenses, etc. a report by Ayushee Chaudhary lists some of the issues hampering this industry’s growth in India.

Also in this issue, there is an exclusive interview by BizAvIndia’s Vishal Thapar with the BAOA President Air Vice Marshal S.S. Chauhan (Retd) discussing the factors that have taken place during the last decade and have increased the input costs. He also points out that if the Government aligns the taxes based on the final usage of the aircraft, the management companies can get a good boost. A report by B.K. Pandey also gives insights into the industry’s contribution to corporate success.

While in India, the industry is still waiting to prosper, remarkable innovations are striking in the world. Jetman’s actual development of the superpower to fly and ready to present the human flight mission at the Expo 2020 in Dubai with an aim to achieve 100 per cent autonomous human flight. In this issue, Ayushee Chaudhary takes us through this amazing journey.

Gulfstream G700, on the other hand, has taken off its maiden flight, after casting its spell over the industry during its launch. Being claimed as the tallest, widest and longest cabin jet aircraft in the industry, the $75 million jet has broken remarkable records. This inaugural flight, which has marked the official launch of the flight test programme for the G700, has also been covered.

The Indian civil aviation industry will hopefully get the impetus it needs at this juncture through an International Exhibition and Conference on Civil Aviation named as “Wings India 2020", being held at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad from March 12 to 15 this year. Do visit us in Hall B, Booth 7 at Wings India 2020.

All this and much more in this issue of BizAvIndia.

Welcome aboard and we wish you many happy landings!