The Civil Aviation Ministry today abolished the Aircraft Acquisition Committee (AAC) which used to permit import of planes by airlines and other operators, thus doing away with time-consuming procedures that affected the companies.
Instead of AAC, now on aviation regulator DGCA would carry out the necessary formalities for airlines, private parties and flight training schools to get their fleet of planes or helicopters, an official spokesperson said here.
He said the Ministry has done away with its control over aircraft acquisition by scheduled and non-scheduled operators, private operators and flying training institutes.
"The permission for actual induction of aircraft will no longer be required from Ministry of Civil Aviation," he said.
AAC was abolished as it was "no more relevant". Matters relating to initial no-objection certificate (NOC) and in-principle approval for acquisition of aircraft by scheduled operators would now be processed by DGCA, the spokesperson said.
Henceforth, only the initial NOC to launch scheduled or non-scheduled air transport services and in-principle approval for acquisition of aircraft would be required from the Ministry, as part of the requirements under the Aircraft Rules and RBI guidelines, he said.
In the recent past, airlines had started objecting to the delays in the meetings of AAC to clear their aircraft orders, saying this adversely affected their commercial decisions to acquire and fly new planes and, hence, profitability.
