India, New Zealand agree on open sky policy for more flights to airlines

India and New Zealand today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for an open sky policy that allows more flights between various cities in the two countries.

According to the MoU, the designated airlines 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.

Likewise, the designated airlines 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 Government of India.

The designated airlines of both countries may also 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.

The third freedom is the right to carry passengers or cargo from one’s own country to another. The right to carry passengers or cargo from another country to one’s own is the fourth freedom. Third and fourth freedom rights are almost always granted simultaneously in bilateral agreements between countries.

The fifth freedom right means that the aircraft of country A, from a service originating in country A, is allowed to embark passengers and cargo in country B and disembark them in country C.

The MoU was signed by Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and David Pine, the New Zealand High Commissioner in the presence of Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Minister for Civil Aviation of India and Damien O’ Connor, New Zealand’s Minister for Trade and Export Growth.

Speaking on the occasion, Civil aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said, “Today is an important day for Civil Aviation air services between India and New Zealand. We have signed an MoU that has opened the possibilities of furthering of air transport between our two countries. The open sky policy has been put in place. The point of calls has been increased. We have also increased intermediate points.”

This MoU will cover the scheduling of new routes, code share services, traffic rights and capacity entitlement.

An Air Services Agreement was signed between New Zealand and India at Auckland on 1 May 2016. The Governments of the two countries have reviewed the existing arrangements and the MoU signed today is expected to further boost the bilateral ties in civil aviation between the two countries.