The Hindu Business Line : `Pact will benefit passengers'

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel (right), and the US Transportation Secretary, Mr Norman Y. Mineta, exchanging documents after signing an agreement on air traffic transport in the Capital on Thursday. - Ramesh Sharma

Mumbai , April 14

THE Air Services Agreement signed between India and the US is expected to help passengers in terms of more number of flights, more destinations and lower cost.

Mr V. Thulasidas, Chairman and Managing Director, AI, said the agreement would benefit passengers, especially since the India-US sector is a growing market.

He said while the earlier agreement on air services between the two countries was fairly liberal, there were some restrictions on operations. For instance, the national carrier could not fly to both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Similarly, there were some restrictions on the capacity flown to certain destinations.

"With the new agreement, these restrictions have been lifted and we will be able to operate flights to more destinations," he said.

He said the agreement would also benefit other Indian carriers as and when they were allowed to fly to the US. Similarly, US carriers would be able to make use of the liberal policy.

AI currently operates 28 frequencies per week to four US cities, namely, New York, Newark (New Jersey), Chicago and Los Angeles. It plans to expand to more destinations, including San Francisco, Washington and either Houston or Dallas Fort Worth, in the next two years.

Mr Gerard Rodrigues, Regional Marketing Manager, KLM-Northwest Airlines, said the open skies agreement will prove to be beneficial for both the countries. Northwest Airlines will introduce daily frequencies between Minneapolis and Bangalore effective October 2005. These flights will be operated via Amsterdam using A330-300 aircraft giving their passengers in the South greater connectivity along with an improved product and service.

Meanwhile, officials with Delta Airlines said the airline was on track to launch daily services from Chennai as planned on May 11. The airline would operate a Boeing-767 aircraft with a capacity of 199 on the Chennai-Paris-New York sector. However, they said they could not make any specific comment about the agreement without seeing the details of the agreement.

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