‘Aircraft leasing companies setting base in Ahmedabad Gift City; SpiceJet & Alliance Air to lease from there’
NEW DELHI: A number of companies, including international ones, are soon going to start aircraft leasing in Ahmedabad’s GIFT city. This is thanks to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this Budget proposing tax holiday on capital gains and tax exemption for aircraft lease rentals paid to foreign lessors for those doing so in Gift City.
“India currently has 700 aircraft (commercial side). Not a single of them was so far leased in India. Now that will change. Several companies, including an Irish one (one of the main places for aircraft leasing business) are setting up this business in Gift City. SpiceJet is considering leasing seaplanes from lessors here. Air India regional arm Alliance Air is also planning to lease two Dorniers of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd through Gift City,” aviation secretary P S Kharola said at India Aircraft Leasing Summit 2021-Rupee Raftaar in Delhi on Friday.
Indian airlines, a majority of them struggling to survive, have 1,028 aircraft on their order books, with an order backlog of $19.3 billion.
Aviation minister H S Puri said India will need 1,750-2,100 aircraft valued at over $290 billion in the next 20 years, with an estimated 100 deliveries each year — about $5 billion of financing each year as per predictions of Airbus and Boeing.
