Know The Regulatory Frame First
Wet and damp lease operations by Indian carriers require DGCA approval and are subject to specific CAR rules. DGCA has proposed and issued revisions that tighten sourcing and surveillance standards, including reliability of the lessor state’s safety oversight. Build these constraints into your drafting and timelines.
Operational Control And Liability
Define who has operational control on each leg, who holds AOC responsibility, and how that aligns with DGCA approvals. Ambiguity here leads to insurance and compliance gaps.
Approvals, Scope And Aircraft Swaps
State the exact approvals required (wet/damp lease approvals, route/airport permissions) and restrict aircraft substitutions without prior consent, document updates, and crew currency checks. Align schedules and permissible sub-services with the CAR language.
Crew Standards And Training
Specify licence types, recency, differences training, and language proficiency. Include rights to review crew records and to stand down crew after incidents pending investigation.
Insurance And Indemnities
Check that hull and liability coverages name the right parties, include waiver of subrogation and breach-of-warranty provisions, and match jurisdiction-specific limits. Tie indemnities to actual risk ownership and regulatory responsibilities.
Maintenance, Records And AOG
Clarify who handles line maintenance, MEL dispatch, tech log custody, and record delivery formats. Include AOG support expectations, spares provisioning, and a reporting cadence for defects.
Commercial Clauses That Bite Later
Avoid vague performance metrics, soft termination rights, and unclear compensation for non-performance or regulatory changes. Define taxes, GST/VAT handling, security deposits, payment waterfalls, and redelivery condition standards.
Charter Agreements: Special Watch-outs
For ad-hoc or series charters, tighten cancellation windows, flight-hour caps, crew duty limits, and fuel/ferry allocations. Capture passenger/cargo handling obligations and airport-specific constraints that often cause on-day disputes.
