The Indian government has responded to pressure from airlines and has relaxed the previous wet lease rules for a limited period of one year. In concrete terms, this means that widebodies can be used for up to 12 months as part of ACMI contracts.
Demand in India is particularly high at the moment and at the same time the local carriers are suffering from both a lack of staff and the difficult availability of spare parts. As a result, some providers cannot operate parts of their own fleets. In order to be able to solve the problem, aircraft, often including wide-bodied jets, are leased from abroad.
However, the current regulations only allow this in exceptional cases and then only for a few weeks. Now the ministry responsible for civil aviation has decided that such ACMI contracts may run for up to 12 months for the time being. The Indian government wants to counteract possible bottlenecks or chaotic conditions in aviation.
However, there is a small but subtle catch: In international traffic, this easing only affects routes between India and the USA as well as Europe. Domestic use is also possible, but must be applied for separately. The wet-lease machines can also only be rented from Indian carriers, so foreign providers don't really benefit from them. In the medium term, India intends to ease the restrictions here as well, although there is no timetable for this yet.
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