Malaysia, India agree to liberalise air services

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Reuters) Malaysia and India have agreed to liberalise air services by boosting flights by 50 percent between major cities and opening up access to secondary airports in India.

Under the pact, aviation authorities will also be allowed to designate as many carriers as they wish to operate on the India-Malaysia route, the Indian government said in a statement issued in Kuala Lumpur.

Designated carriers from both sides can raise the number of flights between Malaysia and six major Indian destinations by 50 percent in the upcoming winter schedule, it said, following last week's bilateral aviation talks in Kuala Lumpur.

The six cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

''The two sides also agreed for a progressive enhancement of traffic rights on these sectors, near doubling over the next two years,'' it said.

Both countries also agreed that their designated airlines can operate any number of services to and from 18 tourist destinations in India.

The destinations are Patna, Lucknow, Guwahati, Gaya, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Khajuraho, Aurangabad, Goa, Jaipur, Port Blair, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Amritsar, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Tiruchirapalli.

Approved India carriers are also allowed to mount unlimited direct services from any point in India to Johor Bahru in southern Malaysia, across the causeway from Singapore.

Both sides will also allow unlimited air cargo services between the two countries, as well as the provision of a code-share arrangement.

''This agreement will pave way for growth in air operations between India and Malaysia.

''As a direct outcome of these talks, the operations of Air India Express on India-Malaysia routes are likely to commence soon,'' it said.

REUTERS SR HS1846