India’s aviation finance ambitions are coalescing at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, where the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) has recorded a 30 per cent rise in aircraft leasing activity over the past year. Officials are targeting annual growth of nearly 100 per cent and expect leased aviation assets to rise from around 200 aircraft to nearly 1,100 by 2030. The IFSC intends to develop a domestic leasing ecosystem to retain transactions that are currently routed overseas.

If those projections materialise, the market could expand tenfold from about $5 billion to an estimated $50 billion (bn), with most leasing activity routed through GIFT City instead of overseas centres such as Ireland and Singapore. India is already the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market and airlines are engaged in a major aircraft acquisition drive, with more than 1,600 aircraft on order. Total purchases over the next decade are expected to exceed 2,000 aircraft, representing deals worth over $100 billion.

At present nearly 75 per cent of India’s commercial fleet, around 700 aircraft, is leased from foreign lessors, mainly based in Ireland, producing a significant foreign exchange outflow. Indian carriers are projected to pay between $4 billion and $5 billion annually in lease rentals over the next decade, underpinning the case for onshore leasing services. Regulators and industry participants are pursuing favourable taxation and regulatory measures to attract origination, structuring and servicing of leases to GIFT IFSC.

IFSCA executives and ministers signalled determination to scale the centre into a full service leasing hub where transactions originate and are managed domestically. The Civil Aviation Minister underlined the need to shift primary financing and structuring onshore and the Gujarat chief minister described GIFT City as a crucial pillar of financial and aviation strategy. Officials also indicated that the investigation into the AI171 crash is in its final stages and that a report is expected within a month, with a special cell coordinating compensation for affected families.