Draft National Air Sports Policy

Key highlights of the National Air Sports Policy (NASP) –

• It covers sports like aerobatics, aeromodelling, amateur-built and experimental aircraft, ballooning, drones, gliding, hang gliding and paragliding, microlighting and paramotoring, skydiving and vintage aircraft.
• The vision is to make India one of the top air sports nations by 2030. 
• An Air Sports Federation of India (ASFI) will be established as the apex governing body and associations for each air sport will handle day to day activities e.g. Paragliding Association of India or Skydiving Association of India etc.
• The air sports associations shall be accountable to ASFI with respect to the regulatory oversight and for providing safe, affordable, accessible, enjoyable and sustainable conduct of their respective air sport.
• ASFI shall represent India at Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and other global platforms related to air sports. 
• As per the policy, inability to enforce safety standards by an air sports association may lead to penal action by the ASFI against such association including financial penalties, suspension or dismissal.
• All persons and entities providing air sports services shall be required to register as members of the respective air sports associations. 
• An airspace map of India has been published on DGCA’s DigitalSky Platform which segregates the entire airspace of India into red zone, yellow zone and green zone.  
• Air sports practitioners may rely on this easily accessible map for guidance. 
• Operation in red and yellow zones requires permission from the Central Government and the concerned Air Traffic Control authority respectively. 
• Operation in green zones for aircraft with all-up weight up to 500 kg does not require any permission. 
• For air sports centred around a fixed location – for instance, Bir-Billing in Himachal Pradesh, Gangtok in Sikkim, Hadapsar in Maharashtra or Vagamon in Kerala – the said location can be declared as a ‘Control zone’ for air sports with necessary permissions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Defence (MoD), State Government and the local Air Traffic Control authority.  
• The Government will consider allowing import of air sports equipment without any import duty for a particular number of years.  Import of previously used air sports equipment may also be allowed free import, subject to laid down norms of airworthiness. 
• Schools, colleges and universities will be encouraged to have air sports included in their curriculum.