India clears Horizontal Aviation Agreement with EU
31 Oct 2008
New Delhi: India said Friday it had approved an agreement with the European Union through which all 26 bilateral air services agreements with member nations would be brought in line with European Commission law.
"The new arrangement will bring all the existing bilateral air services agreements between EU member states and India in line with the European Commission law at one go, thereby obviating any threat of legal challenge," finance minister P Chidambaram informed the media.
The Union Cabinet gave an ex-post facto approval last night to the Horizontal Aviation Agreement, signed in Marseilles on 28 September during prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to France at the India-EU Summit, he said.
According to Chidambaram, the landmark pact on civil aviation would work like an 'open skies' agreement, encouraging more airlines to offer services between the continents.
According to industry figures, passenger traffic on the India-EU sector has grown 75 per cent since 2005, with nearly 5.7 million passengers travelling on the sector in 2007. India ranked 11th in terms of passenger traffic between EU and non-EU countries for this year.
Indian approval ends nearly six years of legal uncertainty, which began when the European Court ruled in November 2002 that bilateral deals on civil aviation services between EU member states and third countries discriminated against airlines from other EU states.
