India, EU “open skies” pact likely by September

25 Jul 2008

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New Delhi: Indian and European carriers are set to gain access to additional destinations on each others land mass with  the signing of an aviation agreement between India and the European Union. The agreement will work like an 'open skies' agreement between India and the EU.

The proposed aviation pact between the two of the world's largest trading partners may likely be formalised in September on the occasion of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to France to participate in the India-EU summit.

With such an agreement, Indian carriers will be able to operate almost unrestricted number of flights to European destinations such as London, Paris and Frankfurt, say civil aviation ministry officials. The agreement will also do away with the need for Indian carriers to seek government permission to enter into code-share pacts with European carriers.

In turn, European carriers will get similar market access in India as well as the freedom to sign agreements with Indian carriers without government clearances.

The proposed horizontal aviation agreement between India and the 26-member EU will be more flexible than the current air service arrangements pursued by India with individual EU members. The horizontal agreement would also allow people from either side to book an integrated ticket for traveling by different modes of transport such as road, rail, air and sea.

It will also ensure technical co-operation between the two sides in areas like aviation safety, security and traffic management.

The agreement would also remove nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between EU members and India allowing designated airlines from EU states and India to operate flights to each other's side wherever a bilateral agreement exists and traffic rights are available.

The agreement will also provide routing flexibility for European carriers, which means designated carriers of different countries may use each other's traffic rights. This provision would come with a rider that airlines would have to operate from the country whose rights are being used.

Indian civil aviation ministry officials said that the terms of the proposed agreement have already been negotiated with Germany and the UK and it is expected that India will shortly negotiate with other member states.

The EU already has similar agreements with China and the US.

According to industry data, US and EU traffic constitutes about 30 per cent of India's total international air traffic, next only to the Gulf (40%). For April 2008, the monthly international traffic from India stood at 2.47 million, up 8.5% over 2.28 million in the corresponding period last year. 

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