Seaplane trials take off in city
The government is in the process of studying regulations from countries with seaplane services including Maldives, Canada and the US and could take up to a year to get started
SpiceJet conducted trials of seaplanes on Saturday in association with Japan’s Setouchi Holdings at Girgaum Chowpatty.
A demonstration of the amphibian flight was made by the airline in the presence of Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping and Water Resources, and Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister of Civil Aviation. However, the trial was delayed for two hours due to low visibility.
The government is in the process of studying regulations from countries with seaplane services including Maldives, Canada and the US and could take up to a year to get started.
While trials were also conducted in Nagpur and Guwahati over the past six months, Gadkari said that UP, Rajasthan, Andamans, Lakshadweep, North Eastern states were also being evaluated for the project.
In October, Spicejet had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan’s Setouchi Holdings to begin amphibian plane services in India. The airline management claims that the project will be sustainable only if the number of planes could be scaled up to over 100.
Ajay Singh, CMD, Spicejet said, “We are still in the process of preparing a plan for the countrywide launch. The routes, pricing, costing, etc are being studied.”