India, New Zealand Signs MoU to Boost Cooperation in Civil Aviation

India and New Zealand have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost cooperation in civil aviation, which includes scheduling of new routes, codeshare services, traffic rights and capacity entitlement, an official statement said on Tuesday.

According to the MoU, the designated airline(s) of New Zealand may operate any number of services with any type of aircraft, with third and fourth freedom traffic rights to/from six points in India, namely New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, it stated.

India and New Zealand had signed the Air Services Agreement at Auckland on May 1, 2016.

Governments of the two countries have reviewed the existing arrangements relating to air service between the two countries, it said and added that the initial pact is expected to further boost the bilateral ties in civil aviation between the two countries.

The MoU was signed by civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal and the High Commissioner of New Zealand, David Pine, it said.

Minister of Civil Jyotiraditya Scindia and the New Zealand Minister for Trade Growth, Agriculture, Biosecurity, Land Information, and Rural Communities of New Zealand, O’ Connor were present on this occasion, the release stated.

“We have signed an MoU that has opened the possibilities of furthering air transport between our two countries,” Scindia was quoted as saying in the statement.

The open sky policy has been put in place. The point of calls has been increased (and) we have also increased intermediate points,” he added.

The designated airline(s) of India may operate any number of services with any type of aircraft with third and fourth freedom traffic rights to/from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and three more points in New Zealand to be named by the Indian Government, according to the statement.

It also said that the designated airlines of both parties may operate any number of all-cargo services with any type of aircraft with third, fourth and fifth freedom traffic rights to/from any points in the territory of the other party via any intermediate point(s) and to any beyond point(s) regardless of the points specified in the route schedule.