The civil aviation ministry has allowed Indian airlines to take wide-body planes on wet lease for up to one year as it pursues efforts to make the country a key international hub for air traffic.

A senior ministry official on Sunday said the rules have been relaxed and airlines that seek to operate wide-body planes will be permitted to operate such aircraft on wet lease for up to one year.

Till now, wet leasing of wide-body planes was allowed only for up to six months.

The country’s largest airline IndiGo on Sunday said it approached the ministry and has received a communication conveying the ministry’s approval to allow Indian carriers to wet/damp lease aircraft for a period of six months extendable by another six months.

Such relaxation shall be available to all Indian carriers on their specific request and the ministry will consider the same based on international destinations that the airline intends to operate, it said in a statement.

“We have plans for inducting B777 aircraft on wet/damp lease basis during the current winter schedule,” the airline said, adding that it is currently working on finalising the contract for the wet/damp lease.

Last month, aviation regulator DGCA permitted IndiGo to wet lease wide-body Boeing planes from Turkish Airlines for up to six months.

Under the wet lease arrangement, planes are leased along with operating crew and engineers.