Japan, India to step up flight services by 2010

In an important breakthrough in the aviation sector, Japan will allot 20 additional slots for Indian carriers at Narita international Airport in Tokyo by 2010. This will result in the Indian airlines operating up to 28 services to Tokyo every week from 4 at present. Japanese civil aviation authorities have also assured India allotment of 28 additional slots at Narita Airport or Haneda Airport, the busiest airport in Japan, in a phased manner to enable Indian carriers to operate additional 14 services to Tokyo.

Japanese airlines will be entitled to operate 14 services each on the Tokyo-Delhi and the Tokyo-Mumbai routes in 2010 from the present level of 7 services each on these routes.

Indian airlines will be able to operate up to 28 services a week from points in India to Tokyo. India and Japan will expand bilateral traffic entitlement from 21 services a week to 42 services a week from March 2010. (Japan is the world’s third largest aviation market)

These announcements were made at a meeting held in Tokyo recently between the civil aviation delegations of India and Japan. The Indian side was led by R K Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, and the Japanese delegation was headed by Ryuhei Maeda, Deputy Director-General of Civil Aviation Bureau.

As of now, airlines from India have 8 slots at Narita international Airport, which is adequate for only 4 flights a week.

At present, these 4 flights a week to Tokyo are being operated by Air-India.

The new agreements, according to experts, will considerably enhance direct traffic on the India-Japan route. Currently, a major portion of the traffic on the India-Japan route has to go through intermediate destinations.

Also, air fares on the India-Japan are likely come down once the capacity is increased.