India-Malaysia air route to see better days

19 July, 2007:

A provision of ‘multiple designation’ has been initiated in a bid to enable the aeronautical authorities of India and Malaysia to designate any number of airlines as they wish to operate on the India - Malaysia route.

This follows the signing of an MoU between India and Malaysia relating to air services between the two countries. According to an official statement, the capacity entitlement for the designated airlines of both sides has been significantly liberalized, which will lead to progressive enhancement of traffic rights over the next two years.

The MoU also states that the designated airlines of both India and Malaysia can operate any number of services to or from 18 tourist destinations in India such as Patna, Lucknow, Guwahati, Gaya, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Khajuraho, Aurangabad, Goa, Jaipur, Port Blair, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Amritsar, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, and Tiruchirapalli. The designated airlines of India are now entitled to operate unlimited direct services from any point in India to Johor Bahru in Malaysia, it stated. As a direct outcome of the MoU, the operations of Air India Express on India-Malaysia route are also likely to commence soon.

In order to enhance the air services operations and to make the operations commercially viable, provision of a code-share arrangement has been agreed to. Another important outcome of the discussions held in this regard is that an agreement on an Open Sky Policy, without any restriction for all cargo services between the two countries, has been reached. The new agreement is expected to help in the growth of air operations between India and Malaysia.