More Indian carriers to fly to Japan

New Delhi, June 20 (UNI) Japan has agreed to allot 20 additional slots at the congested Narita International Airport for Indian carriers to operate ten more weekly flight to Tokyo from March 2010.

This will allow Indian carriers other than Air India to also fly to Narita Airport, Tokyo.

At present, Indian carriers only have eight slots at Narita Airport, sufficient for only four flights a week. Air India is already operating these four flights to Tokyo.

The decision to allot additional slots was taken a meeting between civil aviation delegations of India and Japan in Tokyo on June 17-18, an official release said here today.

Both sides also agreed to expand the bilateral traffic entitlements from 21 services a week to 42 services a week with effect from March 2010.

The Japanese carriers will be entitled to operate 14 services each on Tokyo-Delhi and Tokyo-Mumbai route in 2010 from the present level of seven services each on these routes.

The Indian carriers will be able to operate upto 28 services a week from points in India to Tokyo.

The liberalised arrangement is expected to boost traffic on direct Indian-Japan route.

Currently, large traffic on the route goes through the intermediate destinations. With addition of capacity, the fares are also likely to become more passenger friendly, the release said.

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