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Capacity boost -- Bilateral air talks with Malaysia, UAE

Ashwini Phadnis

NEW DELHI, May 28

THE Ministry of Civil Aviation is to hold a series of bilateral air services talks with several Scandinavian countries, Malaysia, the UAE among others within the next few weeks to increase air capacity between India and these countries.

``These are just a few of the countries with which we are to hold bilateral air service talks. We are keen to schedule any request received for such talks as the Government is keen to make it easier for Indian and international tourists and business comm unity to access India from any corner of the world,'' the Secretary, Civil Aviation, Mr. Ravindra Gupta, told Business Line.

Senior Ministry officials pointed out that the recent steps initiated by the Government had gone a long way in easing the problems faced by passengers. ``Already, the steps taken by the Government have helped add close to one million seats annually for p eople coming in and going out of India,'' officials said.

The Government in the past few months has concluded about a dozen bilateral air services agreements and also allowed phased increase in capacity entitlement in the existing memorandum of understanding (MoU). Officials said the airlines which have benefit ed from this include Singapore Airlines, SwissAir, Air France and Austrian Airlines.

They added that attempts were also being made to expand the number of airports to which foreign airlines fly and, therefore, at least one airline from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had been provided to Amritsar as an additional point of en try, while another international airline was given to Kochi.

``The idea of the bilateral talks is also to see that more people come and see the diverse culture of the country and, therefore, a serious attempt is being made to expand the list of airports where foreign airlines can touch down,'' officials said.

However, they felt it was still too early to say as to how much these steps taken by the Government have led to an increase in tourist and business arrivals into the country.