Message from President, BAOA

Dear Members,

The past few months have been particularly active and productive for the Business Aircraft Operators Association, reflecting our collective commitment to strengthening India’s General and Business Aviation (GA/BA) ecosystem through sustained engagement, constructive dialogue, and forward-looking advocacy. This steep increase places Private corporate aviation operations under expanded tax pressure, particularly for companies and entrepreneurs who rely on private ownership models to meet their business travel needs.

Towards the end of December 2025, many members participated in a comprehensive and high-level meeting at the DGCA Headquarters, chaired by the DG, DGCA. This meeting addressed a wide range of critical regulatory and operational issues impacting the GABA sector, including flight duty time limitations, aeromedical processes, pilot utilisation, infrastructure constraints, and emerging operational models. The discussions were open, substantive, and solution-oriented, and several important decisions and directions emerged from this interaction. BAOA has already shared the draft minutes of this meeting with DGCA, and we expect the final minutes to be issued shortly. Once released, members will have clear visibility into the progress being made and the seriousness with which regulatory concerns of our sector are being addressed. I encourage all members to continue sharing their inputs and to actively participate in these quarterly engagements with DGCA, as collective industry participation is key to achieving meaningful and lasting regulatory reform.

In parallel, BAOA continues to strongly pursue the rationalisation of the unfair and unintended GST burden on privately registered aircraft. Under the GST 2 regime, this duty has effectively increased from 28 per cent to nearly 48 per cent, placing an excessive cost burden on legitimate aviation activity and discouraging fleet growth. We are in the process of submitting a detailed budget proposal to the Ministry of Finance, while also taking up this matter through leading industry bodies such as FICCI and CII. Our objective is to build a broad-based, data-driven case for urgent correction of this anomaly in the forthcoming Union Budget.

Looking ahead, we are on the threshold of BizAvIndia 2026, to be held in Hyderabad on January 27, 2026. This edition promises to be one of the most impactful yet, with strong participation from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA, AERA, international experts, IBAC, and leading global OEMs. Key discussions will cover fractional ownership, aircraft management models, infrastructure and helicopter operations, aeromedical reforms, financing, and the future of Advanced Air Mobility—issues that directly shape the future of our industry. I urge all members to participate actively and help make this event a landmark success.

As always, BAOA remains committed to working closely with its members and our international partners, including IBAC, to enable the sustainable growth of General and Business Aviation as a vital contributor to India’s journey towards ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.