Budget plans to make India aviation hub with aircraft financing, leasing
The government plans to make India a hub for financing aircraft purchases and leasing of planes, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on Friday.
India is one of the world’s most lucrative aviation markets, with a growing middle class flying for the first time, but a fierce price war among airlines and the shutdown of Jet Airways has hurt the industry in recent years.
“As the world’s third largest domestic aviation market the time is ripe for India to enter into aircraft financing and leasing activities from Indian shores. This is critical to the development of a self-reliant aviation industry, creating aspirational jobs in aviation finance, besides leveraging business opportunities available in India’s financial special economic zone namely International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).
