{"id":31433,"date":"2026-09-08T17:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=31433"},"modified":"2026-09-08T18:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:05:15","slug":"india-puts-a-three-aircraft-limit-on-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/india-puts-a-three-aircraft-limit-on-permits\/","title":{"rendered":"India puts a three-aircraft limit on permits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\" data-start=\"41\" data-end=\"231\">India have made some changes to their rules for permit requests. The big one is that you can now only put <strong data-start=\"149\" data-end=\"181\">three aircraft registrations<\/strong> <strong>on a request: one primary and two alternates<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"297\" data-end=\"488\">Word on the street is that <strong>some operators were putting their entire fleet on the application<\/strong>, so they could use pretty much any aircraft if the planned one went tech. And it seems the DGCA wasn&#8217;t too keen on that!<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"546\" data-end=\"736\">So for an operator with a fleet of 20 aircraft, that makes things a little more interesting. Pick the wrong three and you&#8217;ll need to get the permit changed if you end up using another aircraft.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"233\" data-end=\"295\">The new guidance was issued in an email from the DGCA on 19 August 2026, which went like this:<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"297\" data-end=\"488\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31434\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Permits-2026-1024x449.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Permits-2026-1024x449.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Permits-2026-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Permits-2026-768x337.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Permits-2026-1536x674.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Permits-2026-2048x898.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"297\" data-end=\"488\">Lots of words there, friends. But the main things worth mentioning from that list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"297\" data-end=\"488\">You can submit a permit request <strong>no more than 10 working days before the flight.<\/strong> So you can&#8217;t get too far ahead of yourself.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"297\" data-end=\"488\">For changes to the permit, the DGCA say this will only be considered in <strong data-start=\"809\" data-end=\"838\">exceptional circumstances.\u00a0<\/strong>But local permit agents tell us that in reality this is not normally a problem, and as long as you get your change request in during DGCA working hours they can <strong>get it changed within 6 hours.\u00a0<\/strong>Contact them at <a href=\"mailto:ops@srcaviation.com\">ops@srcaviation.com<\/a> to do the needful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"1116\" data-end=\"1197\">But either way, if your aircraft goes tech, don&#8217;t leave the permit change til the last minute!<\/p>\n<h4 data-section-id=\"hiyvus\" data-start=\"2806\" data-end=\"2833\">One More Question<\/h4>\n<p>Here&#8217;s something we asked, thinking we might&#8217;ve thought up a clever work-around:<\/p>\n<p><em>For an operator with more than 3 aircraft who doesn&#8217;t know which aircraft will operate the flight, can they submit <strong>multiple permit application<\/strong>s (with up to 3 registrations on each) and obtain <strong>multiple permit numbers<\/strong>, then use whichever permit covers the aircraft actually operating?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The answer: no.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So that was the end of that.<\/p>\n<h4>Standard Permit Rules<\/h4>\n<p>One other thing to note is this new thing about max-three-planes-on-permit-requests is for all for <strong data-start=\"1576\" data-end=\"1601\">non-scheduled\/private\u00a0<\/strong>permit requests &#8211; not scheduled airline ones.\u00a0The <a href=\"https:\/\/aim-india.aai.aero\/eaip-v2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">India AIP<\/a> says that private\/charter\/bizav\/non-sched flights all fall into the same bucket when it comes to permit requests &#8211; they basically all follow the same process.<\/p>\n<p>Expect <strong>24hrs lead time for overwater flights<\/strong> and <strong>3 working days for flights crossing Indian landmass.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And on that point&#8230;<\/p>\n<h4 data-section-id=\"1y3gu20\" data-start=\"2124\" data-end=\"2164\">Overwater Flights<\/h4>\n<p data-start=\"2624\" data-end=\"2804\"><strong>You don&#8217;t need a permit if you&#8217;re not overflying India&#8217;s landmass.<\/strong> Kinda interesting, but not actually very useful for most overflights between the Middle east and Asia as all the airways cross the land.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2624\" data-end=\"2804\">But worth knowing if you&#8217;re maybe planning a flight to the likes of <strong>VRMM\/Male<\/strong> in the Maldives! (Can&#8217;t think of anywhere else where this no-permit-required-for-oceanic-flights would actually be useful, <a href=\"mailto:team@ops.group\">can you?<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2624\" data-end=\"2804\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31442\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Oceanic-FIRs-1024x621.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"621\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Oceanic-FIRs-1024x621.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Oceanic-FIRs-300x182.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Oceanic-FIRs-768x466.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Oceanic-FIRs-1536x932.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/India-Oceanic-FIRs-2048x1243.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4 data-section-id=\"hiyvus\" data-start=\"2806\" data-end=\"2833\">The Pakistan Gotcha<\/h4>\n<p data-start=\"3175\" data-end=\"3313\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Not really a gotcha, because no one has a plane registered in India or Pakistan. And if you do, you&#8217;ll know this already.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3175\" data-end=\"3313\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">But here it is anyway. India and Pakistan have had reciprocal airspace bans in place since the 2025 conflict, and they\u2019re still being extended &#8211; so <strong>Indian reg aircraft still can\u2019t use Pakistan airspace, and vice versa.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-bottom-left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433?print=pdf\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pdf-print-buttons\/pdf_button.png?2060371495\" alt=\"image_pdf\" title=\"View PDF\" \/><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India have made some changes to their rules for permit requests. The big one is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":31446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[169],"class_list":{"0":"post-31433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-india"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31433"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31449,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433\/revisions\/31449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}