Jet-friendly wet-leasing policy gets Ministry nod

NEW DELHI, July 21: The Civil Aviation Ministry today decided to permit wet-leasing of aircraft by domestic airline companies, completely diluting the June 11 guidelines which prohibited leasing of aircraft from foreign airlines. Today’s amendment will permit airline companies to hire aircraft along with the pilots and crew members — wet-leasing in jargon — which can only be leased from foreign airlines. The move is seen as one which will, primarily, benefit Jet Airways which traditionally wet-leases its aircraft.

Under the June 11 guidelines, however, aircraft leasing from aviation companies had been ruled out. This had hit Jet Airways immediately as they had leased five aircraft from Malaysian Airlines following the notification of the guidelines and had to send these back. Jet was then allowed to keep one of these as a replacement for one of its aircraft which had overshot the runway last month and had got damaged.

Following this, Jet had put in a fresh proposal asking to be allowed to wet-leasethree aircraft from Malaysian Airlines. Now that the new guidelines have been announced, it is expected that the other two will also be cleared soon.

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In an announcement today, the ministry said the norms would remain consistent with existing procedures of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which specify that wet leasing will have to granted by the Government against an application by the company. While the guidelines define wet leasing as a short-term measure, they do not specify any ceiling.

Industry sources, however, say it is generally difficult for airline companies to sustain wet leases as they are more expensive (roughly upwards of Rs 5 lakh a month) and served only to bridge any short-term gap.