India-New Zealand ink MoU to boost cooperation in civil aviation

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

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

An Air Services Agreement was signed between New Zealand and India at Auckland on 1 May 2016.

“New Zealand and India have reviewed the existing arrangements relating to air service between the two countries. The MoU signed today is expected to further boost the bilateral ties in civil aviation between the two countries,” said the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

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.

On the occasion, 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.”

"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 the Republic of India," said the Ministry.

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 points and to any beyond points regardless of the points specified in the Route Schedule.