March 21, 2007: India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will start 18 new services between the two nations, with Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram being added as points of call for designated airlines of UAE. The services will be operated out of Abu Dhabi international airport.

The two countries will add 11 flights per week on the Abu Dhabi-India-Abu Dhabi route immediately, and on the Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram sector, the nations will operate seven new flights starting from the winter of 2007-08.

Apart from this, the designated carriers of both the countries are permitted to operate any number of cargo services between the two countries. The carriers are permitted to operate any type of aircraft between any two destinations and are provided traffic rights to any intermediate points and beyond.

The new services are being introduced after the civil aviation authorities of both the countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier this month to expand aviation traffic between the two countries.

The director-general of UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority Mohammad Ganem Al Gaith signed an MoU on March 15 with R K Singh, joint secretary of India's Ministry of Civil Aviation. The MoU was signed in New Delhi.

Most of the international carriers like Aero Asia International, Air India, Biman Bangladesh Airlines and British Airways operate scheduled services to Abu Dhabi International Airport. As on February 2007, over 30 carriers have services to this Gulf city, with China Airlines, EgyptAir, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Sudan Airways and Turkish Airlines are among others that operate either daily or weekly services to Abu Dhabi.

Cargo carriers like Cargolux, China Airlines Cargo, Dolphin Air, Etihad Airways Crystal Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo are among others that have daily operations to the city. The airport records over 45,000 aircraft movements per year.

The Abu Dhabi International Airport is on an expansion mode, with the authorities completing the construction of a second terminal in record time. The second terminal, costing $6.8 billion, was built as a quick solution to air traffic volumes which have outgrown its first terminal.

But with the passenger traffic growing in leaps and bounds, the supervision committee for the expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport is planning to construct another passenger terminal. The terminal – number three – would be built by Al Habtoor Engineering and Murray & Roberts, and will help in easing passenger congestion.