CAAN had revoked AOC of Agni Air, Namaste Air, Blue Airways, Swift Air, Muktinath Air, Alpine Air and BB Airways in July. The airlines have to renew their AOC annually by the end of fiscal year (mid-July) to continue its operation. [break]
“As these airlines´ AOC were not renewed in July, they have to get it renewed to start their operation following the criteria as per the AOCR 2012,” said Sanjiv Gautam, deputy director general at Safety Regulation Directorate of CAAN.
He added that the reversion of decision regarding revocation does not mean that the airlines can operate directly.
CAAN had enforced the AOCR 2012 on November 2 and has given three months for international airlines, and six months for domestic airlines to comply with new AOCR with effect from July 16.
As per the new AOCR, the new airlines will now have to acquire an aircraft before getting their permit whereas in the old regulation airlines were allowed to purchase aircraft within six months after receiving AOC. Besides, CAAN will study the operator´s viability, infrastructure and other basic requirements before renewing AOC to existing airlines and issuing no objection certificate (NOC) to new airlines.
Of the seven airlines, only Namaste Air has filed their application at CAAN for AOC till date. “We had earlier filed application for AOC and now that our AOC has not been revoked, we will be applying for renewal on Sunday,” said Raju KC, executive chairman of Namaste Air.
KC said that Namaste Air has already cleared taxes worth around Rs 200 million and will be operating only two Dornier in Kathmandu - Lukla and Pokhara- Jomsom routes before Dashain once they get their AOC renewed.
The AOC of these airlines were revoked as they were not operating the flights but just holding their AOC.
Madhav Prasad Dahal, deputy director of Flight Safety Standards Department, CAAN said that the AOC of the airlines automatically gets revoked if they do not operate for 180 days.
MoCTCA had questioned CAAN regarding the reason behind the revocation of AOCs in the first week of August, and CAAN had replied to the ministry, clarifying the reasons behind the move in August itself.
However, no officials at CAAN or MoCTCA have any idea why the CAAN´s decision to revoke the AOC of seven airlines was cancelled. MoCTCA is planning to either conduct press meet or issue a press release on Sunday on the matter, said an official at MoCTCA.
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