India has inked bilateral Air Services Agreements (ASAs) with 116 foreign countries to boost global connectivity and tourism.
Answering a question by Dr John Brittas during the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Murlidhar Mohol, Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that this move will enhance international flight operations between India and its partner nations.
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India has designated cities instead of states to encourage point-to-point connectivity and support structured approach to global connectivity.
This means a specific assigned airline can travel back and forth in Indian airspace if the airport comes under point of call.
This is one of the most common practices in international aviation agreements.
By designating specific cities rather than states leads to multi-point connectivity with multiple airports in that city thus providing greater flexibility for airlines. This ensures boost to international flights along with better management and operational efficiency.
‘No State as Point of Call’
Another query during Question Hour was request for copies of the relevant pages of bilateral Air Services Agreements designating states as Points of Call.
To this the minister clarified that no Indian state has been designated as a Point of Call (PoC) in its entirety and hence there are no documents to support the designation of states as PoCs.
Instead, the agreements typically specify cities as points of call. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Khajuraho, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam are the 31 cities in India currently designated for this agreement.
India is one of the fastest growing aviation sectors with rapidly developing airport infrastructure. In 2014, there were 74 operational airports, which has now increased to 148.
Under the UDAN scheme, 68 underserved/unserved destinations, including 58 airports, 8 heliports, and 2 water aerodromes, have been connected. It has provided air connectivity to over 29 states/union territories.
The airport authority of India along with the Ministry of civil aviation and government plans to double the number of operational airports in India by 2047.
This involves developing, expanding and modernising the existing airstrips and construction of new airports, especially in remote and Tier II and III cities.
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