India has signed open skies agreement with six countries namely Jamaica, Guyana, Czech Republic, Finland, Spain and Sri Lanka, at the International Civil Aviation Negotiations (ICAN) 2016. The open skies agreement as per NCAP 2016 allows unlimited number of flights to six metro airports namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai. R.N. Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation revealed that the conference saw in attendance 106 countries out of ICAO membership of 191 countries. India held negotiations with 17 countries and ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ was signed with 12 countries. India resolved major issues at these negotiations as per the directions in National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP 2016). Firstly, India renegotiated traffic rights with Oman increasing the entitlements with 6,258 seats effective from Summer 2017 as the existing entitlements were nearly exhausted. The points of call remained unchanged. India agreed with Saudi Arabia to increase the capacity by 8000 seats per week from IATA season when Indian carrier’s utilisation reaches 80 per cent. This was in response to the needs of increasing traffic between the two countries where Indian carriers have been utilising open sky in Damman to mount more flights than the Saudi Arabian side. Indian also agreed with Ghana to increase the present allocation of 2 frequencies to 7 frequencies per week to encourage connectivity between the two countries. ICAN was held recently in Nassau from December 5-9, 2016 The new arrangement will encourage connectivity and passenger travel between India and these countries. There were new Air Service Agreements signed with Jamaica and Guyana. In the present scenario code shares provide seamless connectivity to the travelling passengers and make possible connectivity between far off destinations not served by direct flights. As …
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