Aviation Laws

Common questions on ‘Aviation Laws’

• What is Aviation law?
• What are the governing legislations on Aviation law in India?
• Are there any aircraft security rules in India?

What is Aviation law?

Aviation laws is the sphere of law that governs air travel, business & legal concerns attached with Aviation Industry and general supervision over the Aviation in India. A few important agencies in this regard are the Federal Aviation Administration & the National Transportation Safety Board, Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

The governing legislations in this topic:

• The Civil Aviation Requirements, which provide for general guidelines w.r.t aircraft operations, licensing, maintenance of certain standards, etc.
• The Aircraft Act, 1934 is an act to make better provision for the control of the manufacture, possession, use, operation, sale, import and export of aircraft.
• The Air Corporations Act, 1953, which aims at
• The Aircraft (Carriage of Dangerous Goods) Rules, 2003, which aims at the regulation of the carriage of dangerous goods, for example, bombs.
• The Airports Authority of India Act, 1994, which was made to provide the framework for the authority which would be looking after the aeronautical communication stations and airports. This act constituted the Airports Authority of India.
• The Tokyo Convention Act, 1975, which was made to apply the policies of Tokyo Convention in India, as a result of this enactment & the Convention being at place, the Indian penal laws become applicable for events happening on board a flight registered in India even if its in-flight in some place other than India.
• The Anti-Hijacking Act, 1982
• The Anti-Hijacking Act, 1994 (Amendments Act, 1994)
• The Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act 1982
• The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008 which aims at the regulation of tariffs and it established an Appellate Tribunal.
• For an Indian carrier to fly abroad, they must utilize 20% of the total average number of seats on all departures OR 20 aircrafts for domestic operations, with the criteria of choosing being the higher of the two options.
• The compensation scheme is the following-
  • 2,000/- or the value of the ticket whichever is less for flights having a block time of upto and including one hour
  • 3.000/- or the value of the ticket whichever is less for flights having block time of more than one hour and upto and including two hours.
  • 4,000/- or the value of the ticket whichever is less for flights having a block time of more than two hours.
• The Aircraft Security Rules, 2011

There are total 48 rules in the Aircraft Security Rules, 2011 describing the measurements of security of a citizen on an aircraft.