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Newsgroups: soc.culture.singapore, soc.culture.malaysia Date: 2004-10-20 17:47:20 PST
India opens its skies to ASEAN
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Wednesday announced an 'open skies' arrangement with the ten-member ASEAN to allow designated airlines from the regional grouping to run daily flights to India.
"There is a need for increased connectivity between India and ASEAN. The open skies arrangement is a unilateral move by India," Vajpayee told ASEAN leaders during the second India-ASEAN summit in Bali, Indonesia.
The designated airlines could fly daily to and from selected Indian metropolitan cities, Vajpayee said at the daylong closed-door meeting, according to Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal.
In order to prevent any adverse impact on the revenue of Air-India earned through bilateral air traffic rights, the government has allowed the airlines of these Southeast Asian nations to operate freely to certain places like Goa, Kochi, Amritsar, Gaya and Khajuraho, the sources said.
These foreign carriers would however not be allowed to use the 'open sky' policy for metro cities, the sources said.
They replied in the affirmative when asked whether these airlines would be allowed to take the benefit of the policy when it is announced by the government for all other carriers as has been the past practice during the peak winter season.
While only three ASEAN nations operated their flights to India, both Air-India and Indian Airlines would face heightened competition if these carriers were allowed to operate to the comparatively smaller but important tourist destinations, industry sources said.
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