India, Thailand Sign New Air Services Agreement

Text of report by Indian news agency PTI

New Delhi, 14 February: India and Thailand have signed a new Air Services Agreement under which rights have been given to each other’s airlines to fly from select airports in either of the countries to a third country, besides enhancing the seat capacity.

According to the new agreement, a designated airline of Bangkok will be allowed to fly to Dubai from Chennai at least four times every week with not more than 1,220 passengers.

However, there would be no such right for the Thai Airways to fly to a third country from any other airport, an official spokesperson said here Tuesday [14 February], adding on reciprocal basis a designated Indian carrier would be allowed to operate up to seven frequencies per week.

The agreement was signed by Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad while the Thailand was represented by its Vice Minister for Transport Mahidol Chantrangkum at Bangkok, the spokesman added.

The new air services agreement will also provide multiple designation of airlines and the number of seats increased to 8,606 till summer of 2006 and was expected to go further to 18,671 by the summer of 2009.

The designated airlines of both the countries would now be entitled to operate unlimited frequency and capacity with any type of aircraft on their respective specified route schedules.

The destinations in India for the Thai airlines would go up to 18 airports from the existing three.