Vman Aviation Services signs Gift City's first aircraft purchase agreement

Vman will soon announce its first dry lease transaction, the company said in a statement.

A dry lease is a leasing arrangement where an aircraft lessor provides an aircraft without crew, ground staff, etc, to an airline or corporation.

The union budget announced earlier in the year rolled out several incentives and tax holidays on capital gains on aircraft leasing conducted at Gift city.

“One of the biggest challenges this segment faces is access to leased equipment at reasonable costs," said Vishok Mansingh, chief executive of Vman Aviation Services.

"However, with recently announced Government initiatives, incentives, IFSCA’s policy on aircraft leasing, GIFT city infrastructure and our own extensive domestic market experience, Vman can provide economical leasing solutions to the general, business and helicopter segment in India," he said adding that the company hopes to conduct leases of more Airbus aircraft in future.

Two global aircraft financing and leasing companies, and two domestic aviation-related firms will be setting up aircraft leasing arms at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gujarat’s GIFT City, civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola had said after the budget announcement in February. These include Ireland-based Acumen Aviation, London-based Investec Aviation Finance and domestic private jet aggregator JetSetGo.

"The aircraft purchase signing is a landmark event in the Indian aviation history. This agreement is the result of the efforts put in for the last four to five years to create a viable leasing and financing ecosystem in the country," Kharola said after the signing of the first aircraft purchase agreement out of Gift City on Wednesday.

"This is a new business segment coming to India and the Government of India shall continue to provide all possible help to promote leasing activities in India under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan," he added.