DGCA Grants Licence To Country's First Seaplane Airline Company; Operations To Start From Lakshadweep

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has granted a licence to aviation company SkyHop Aviation to operate commercial seaplane services in the country.

Avani Singh, founder and chief executive of the company, announced the same in a LinkedIn post on Monday. This makes SkyHop Aviation India’s first dedicated company providing seaplane services.

“Proud to receive our Air Operator Certificate (AOC) with the support of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA. The result of tremendous hard work from our team at SkyHop Aviation Private Limited over the past year. We cannot wait to fly the people of India, and beyond!,” Singh said in her LinkedIn post.

Singh is the daughter of SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh. To start with, her company is planning to provide seaplane services in five islands in Lakshadweep, connecting them with each other.

Operations will begin with a 19-seater aircraft. The company has converted an aircraft of a non-operational airline into a seaplane by fixing floats to it.

SkyHop is also exploring other similar opportunities across the country.

Earlier in April, the company had successfully conducted a test flight in Rishikesh. The flight took off and landed at the Ganga Barrage on April 6.

Recently, the government has given a renewed push to the commencement of seaplane services in the country. During her Budget speech in February this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government would give incentives to indigenise manufacturing of seaplanes.

“To enhance last-mile and remote connectivity, and promote tourism, I propose to give incentives to indigenise manufacturing of seaplanes. A seaplane viability gap funding scheme will also be introduced to provide support for operations,” the minister had said.

In its recent revision of the UDAN scheme, the government had also planned to have more seaplane services.

Earlier in the past, SpiceJet had tried to offer seaplane services in Gujarat but could not sustain the same.