Own a jet? Skip the queue at Mumbai airport

Indian billionaires flying out of Mumbai in their personal jets for that important board meeting in London or a family wedding in Versailles need not jostle around at the international terminal alongside other passengers for long. Tushar Srivastava reports.

Indian billionaires flying out of Mumbai in their personal jets for that important board meeting in London or a family wedding in Versailles need not jostle around at the international terminal alongside other passengers for long.

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Soon, they will be able to hop on to their corporate jets and take-off from the General Aviation (GA) (private aeroplane) terminal at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport.

"The GA terminal at CSI airport is ready to start international operations," the Mumbai International Airport Private Limited — the private operator of CSI airport — wrote to the government last week.

GA terminal is a dedicated terminal for private jets, which at present handles only domestic operations.

Mumbai airport sees 30-35 private jet movements on a daily basis.

"Taking into account all regulatory agencies — customs, immigration, Central Industrial Security Force and BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security) — a Standard Operating Procedure was prepared and forwarded to respective agencies for their approval," sources told HT.

"Approval has been received from all agencies except BCAS, which had certain objections. These, too, have been complied with," the sources said.

As per procedure, immigration officials would come from the international terminal to the GA terminal.

"Thus no additional manpower will be required. The procedure has been agreed by immigration," they said.

Sources said some reservations have been expressed by the Foreigner Regional Registration Office about staff deployment.

"We have requested the Civil Aviation Ministry to convene a meeting with officials of the Home Ministry," they said.