Wednesday, April 13 2005 22:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Opening their skies for unrestricted services, India and the US will sign a path-breaking agreement tomorrow (Apr 14, 2005) providing greater air connectivity to more cities from the existing four on either side.

The Union Cabinet, presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, today (Apr 13) gave its nod for replacing the 1956 Air Services Agreement with a new one that will be signed in New Delhi tomorrow by US Secretary of Transportation N Y Mineta and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

With the new accord coming into operation, Air India and other carriers will have additional ports of call other than existing ones like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Newark (New Jersey).

"Now, we want to start services to Washington, Houston, San Francisco and other American cities," Patel told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

Similarly, American carriers will also be able to have direct operations to additional cities in India.

Currently, Indian carriers operate 28 flights a week to the US which has 14 flights.

"In the long run, we feel that Air India will be benefited by this new agreement," Patel said.

Asked whether Left parties have been consulted before firming up this accord, Patel said this was especially meant to give more air connectivity and point-to-point easier travel for the people of the two countries.

"It is in the interest of our country to see that there are more air services which will enable a free flow of traffic and help our tourism, trade, commerce and industry and also generate employment," he said.

While the existing agreement provides unlimited access to the airlines of both sides, the number of destinations in either country is restricted to four. Under the revised agreement, this restriction on points of call will be removed.

The new accord also seeks to remove the earlier restriction of code-share rights to any five points in the respective territories of both countries.

It proposes to eliminate all existing restrictions on Fifth Freedom traffic through intermediate points and provides for greater operational flexibility, Patel said.

A special provision relating to safety has been added in the new agreement, he said.

Patel said the removal of restrictions on points of call, code-share rights and fifth freedom rights would provide greater commercial opportunities to Indian carriers and enable them to wean away traffic on the India-US route from the third country carriers.

The revised accord, however, retains the basic spirit of the existing agreement on most other issues like multiple designations of airlines and reasonable and non-discriminatory user charges.

The other considerations that remain unchanged are non-discriminatory treatment in respect of Customs duties and charges, unlimited access to the airlines of both sides, arbitration provision for dispute settlement and acceptance of multilateral air transport conventions.