India, Saudi Arabia sign bilateral air services agreement

New Delhi, Jan 24 (UNI) India and Saudi Arabia have signed a bilateral air services agreement, allowing both sides to raise the existing traffic entitlement of 8,500 seats a week to 20,000 seats a week.

Through the agreement, signed at Jeddah yesterday, India will become the first country to be granted access to operate to Madina on schedule basis, an official release here today said.

Similarly, Saudi Arabia will be the first country in West Asia/Gulf to get the facility of flights to Calicut.

Saudi Arabian airlines will now also be able to fly to Lucknow and Bangalore.

Both sides also decided to free all limitations on the cargo services.

There will be no restriction in terms of frequency and point of call for operating all cargo services.

With the successful conclusion of the agreement, airlines of both sides will be able to add new services on the India-Saudi Arabia route, which is presently constrained due to the bilateral capacity and route limitations.

This will be in the interest of the those people who have to travel through third countries and at higher tariffs due to these limitations, the release said.

UNI YJ PDT VC2010