Ahmedabad airport authorities have submitted all documents and are expecting to get a licence soon.
No airport in India will be allowed to undertake any flight operation from July next year if it is not licensed by the aviation regulator DGCA by June-end.
A notification to this effect has been issued by the government, as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) continued inspection and safety audit at airports across the country. The audits are being carried out to grant licenses to airport operators, including state-owned Airports Authority of India.
As per the notification, no one will be allowed to operate scheduled air transport services to or from an aerodrome from June 30, 2011, unless it has been licensed by DGCA.
"Therefore, an aerodrome which has not been licensed can continue to operate without obtaining the license up to June 30 next year as per this legal provision," an official spokesperson said. There are 63 airports which are to be licensed, including 53 operated by the AAI. The latter includes Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport of Ahmedabad as well.
The rest of them, including those in Delhi, Mumbai, Cochin, Bangalore and Hyderabad, are owned either by the private sector or are part of joint ventures.
Anuj Aggarwal, director, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, said, "We have completed all formalities for getting the license for Ahmedabad airport from DGCA. Documents have been submitted, everything from our side has been finished. We expect to get a license from the DGCA soon."
While DGCA has issued initial licenses to 15 airports, it has inspected 14 more for issuing licenses. The regulator has so far received applications for licenses from 15 airports, while there were 23 more which are yet to submit such applications.
Apart from these airports, there are 22 defence airports which have civil enclaves where civil aviation operations take place, the spokesperson said, adding that the issue of licensing of these airports has been taken up with the Defence Ministry.
Besides these 63, there are around 24 airports in the country which are used for scheduled flight operations, handling of passengers and cargo.
In view of this large number of aerodromes to be licensed, a phased approach was adopted by the government under which priority was given to licensing the international aerodromes in the first phase.
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