TBM Staff - Mumbai India and South Korea are in talks to enhance the existing bilateral air service agreement, two officials aware of the development said.
Currently, India has bilateral air service agreements with 116 countries.
The air service agreement between India and South Korea has remained unchanged since 2015 when the capacity entitlement for both countries was increased from six flights per week to 19, reports Anu Sharma for Mint.
“India and Republic of Korea are assessing the current flight limitations under the bilateral air service agreement between the two countries. We are working with them with an intent to increase the permitted number of flights from both sides,” said one of the officials aware of the development.
Air traffic between India and South Korea has shown strong growth since the easing of Covid-related restrictions in March 2022. As per the latest data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, air traffic between the two countries has more than doubled to 54,174 passengers in Jan-Mar as compared with 20,378 passengers a year ago.
In the same time period, total international traffic to and from India grew 18% to 17.9 million passengers.
“The enhancement of bilateral air rights in 2015 took place after two rounds of inconclusive discussions. So, we will see how it goes (this time around),” the other official said.
“Discussions are taking place on increasing points of call, the number of flights between two countries, and to establish an all-cargo route structure for scheduled airlines.”
As per data for the March quarter, Delhi-Seoul is the only direct scheduled service between the two countries with non-stop flights by Air India and Korean Air. (Source: Mint)
