Airlines, especially unlisted ones, can now heave a sigh of relief. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has clarified that it has no intention of seeking airlines' balance sheets as part of a civil aviation requirement (CAR) issued recently seeking detailed financial information from all airlines. According to this CAR, extensive financial details are to be submitted by all airlines to DGCA.
The regulator has also made it clear, any further expansion of fleet and operations, including grant of 'air operator's permit' for all airlines shall be subject to mitigation of potential risk factors identified by the operator during the financial surveillance, to the satisfaction of DGCA.
DGCA director Lalit Gupta said “There is no clause in the CAR wherein airlines are required to disclose their financial status, i.e: balance sheet, to DGCA.”
Gupta said that among all scheduled airlines, only Jet Airways forwarded its comments on the CAR, while making it clear that DGCA has powers to issue CAR and there was no question of “seeking agreement of the airlines (for this purpose).”
As per the CAR, airlines must submit financial details such as instances of sale of assets, deferment of discretionary spending-capital expenditure, training, advertising, also if an airline has lost valuable suppliers within 12 months.
It also wants a record of every airline’s accident rate per one lakh hours, if there has been any sudden or significant reduction in fleet, if the operator is continuously taking delivery of new aircraft besides details on training schedules and regularity. If flights are getting delayed due to crew availability or due to significant or sudden fleet reduction, then too DGCA wants to be apprised.
In its comments on this CAR, Jet Airways requested the DGCA to ensure that its new requirements “do not add to the administrative burden of the operators...several airlines are required to publish, make available to the public and corporate regulatory authorities, both financial and key operational and management information on a regular basis - usually every quarter.”
The aviation regulator has sought information on every significant aspect of an airline’s functioning to assess if the carrier is able to comply with safety procedure.
Curiously, the DGCA order also makes it clear that information about airlines could also be sourced from “informal” sources. The order applies to scheduled airlines and those non-scheduled carriers which have a fleet of more than five aircraft.