How is India's private helicopter market faring?

Most defence experts have termed the Mi-17V5 IAF helicopter crash as a rare and stray incident. They said that the army helicopters are as safe as the civilian aircraft. And they also reasserted that the country needed more advanced military helicopters.

Just like the army, the country’s civilian population also desperately needs more helicopters for various needs, including the emergency medical evacuations. Who will believe that civil registered helicopters in India were just around 250 a few months ago. And most of them will soon be busy ferrying politicians as the election season is drawing close.

In the country's remote corners and in hilly terrains, thousands of people, especially pregnant women and newborn, lose their lives every year due to lack of air ambulances, which are so far confined to a few high-end hospitals in metros.

In February this year, the then Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, had said that helicopter operations in India were well below its potential, even as their requirement was seen to be rising in areas like tourism, mining, corporate travel and medical services.

Puri had said that the total number of civil registered helicopters in India was around 250. Meanwhile, he added, Brazil had around 1,250, Australia had around 2,000, and the US had more than 14,000 such helicopters.  

According to a media report, an unnamed source from the industry said that the country’s helicopter market was ‘dwindling fast’. The source added that people in the industry were increasingly selling off their helicopters. This was in March this year. However, Business Standard was not able to independently verify this trend.  

So what is ailing the sector? A senior officer in government-owned helicopter service firm Pawan Hans recently told a news website that it’s the government rules which are holding back the sector. He said that helicopters are being treated as fixed-wing planes and they are not permitted to land outside airfields or airports in most cases.

However, things might be finally looking up for the industry. In October this year, it was reported that helicopter flight permissions would become simpler and quicker as the civil aviation ministry was set to introduce an online application system.

Under the new policy, announced by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, dedicated hubs and corridors would be established while landing charges and parking deposits would be abolished.

The enterprise will help in the creation of a database of helipads thus, addressing a long-term industry demand. It will also provide accurate information on helicopter traffic in the country. The government was also slated to put together a dedicated helicopter-acceleration cell in the Civil Aviation Ministry.

With the new policy in place and the norms relaxed, experts believe that sector will see some momentum forward. Now only time will tell if the helicopter market in India is up for a long haul.