India to hold aviation talks with 40 countries
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At least 40 countries will negotiate on aviation rights with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) at a UN meeting on 17-22 October. A senior ministry official told livemint.com that out of the 40 countries, many will be extensions of existing bilateral agreements with India.
“We have not taken a final call on increasing the capacity in the bilateral talks,” the unnamed official was reported saying. “The main focus of the International Civil Aviation Organisation meet will be on modernisation of ASAs (Aviation Security Audit) by including certain safety clauses, code-sharing guidelines, security and tariff. All of them (the 40 countries that India is talking with) want to amend the current ASAs,” he added.
Nasim Zaidi, Secretary for MoCA, confirmed the development without divulging the specifics of the bilateral negotiations.
As of 1 April 2010, 72 foreign airlines operated 1,356 services a week to India, offering 326,705 seats, according to statistics provided by MoCA. Four Indian carriers fly to 25 countries with 990 flights every week to 35 destinations as of April 2010. Indian carriers are eligible to operate to and from 104 countries with which the government has bilateral agreements. The four Indian airlines with international services – Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and SpiceJet – were joined in September by IndiGo.
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