Industry Hopes Govt To Align Domestic Laws With Int'l: Airbus India Chief

Amid concerns of lessors in the wake of Go First insolvency proceedings, aircraft maker Airbus on Thursday said the industry hopes the government will expedite the alignment of domestic laws with international conventions and treaties.

With the initiation of insolvency resolution proceedings for Go First following the crisis-hit airline's plea and subsequent moratorium, lessors are unable to take back their aircraft leased to the carrier.

Against this backdrop, President and Managing Director of Airbus India and South Asia Remi Maillard mentioned the alignment of domestic laws with international conventions.

"The industry hopes the government will expedite the alignment of domestic laws with international conventions and treaties...," Maillard said.

He is also the Chairman of industry body Ficci's civil aviation committee.

So far this month, lessors have approached the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the deregistration of 45 Go First planes and five SpiceJet planes under the Cape Town Convention.

Under the Cape Town Convention (CTC), if a lessor has invoked the Irrevocable De-registration and Export Request Authorisation (IDERA), then the plane concerned has to be deregistered.

The same has to be done in five working days but due to the NCLT imposing a moratorium under insolvency proceedings, lessors cannot take back Go First planes at least for now.

Speaking here at the curtain raiser event for the 'Wing India 2024' conference next year, he also said that India continues to remain one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world.

India is a major market for Airbus.

Referring to the Go First crisis, he noted that it also shows that Indian airlines are operating on "fragile margins".

According to him, the government is making efforts to reduce the operational costs of airlines by requesting states to reduce VAT (Value Added Tax) on fuel.

Jet fuel accounts for a significant part of an airline's operational costs.

Meanwhile, Go First's plea for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings was admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on May 10.

Some aircraft lessors have moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the NCLT's decision. The appellate tribunal is scheduled to deliver its judgement on the lessors' petitions on May 22.

Go First stopped flying from May 3 and has extended the suspension of operations till May 26.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)