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The Air Services Agreement (ASA) between India and United States of America was signed by Shri Praful Patel, Minister for Civil Aviation and Mr. Norman Y Mineta, US Transportation Secretary. It may be recalled that a more liberalized ASA along with Memorandum of Consultations (MOC) was initialed during the bilateral civil aviation consultations between the two countries on 13-14 January, 2005 in Washington DC.
This agreement will replace the existing ASA signed between the two countries on 3rd February 1956. The earlier agreement though quite liberal, had some restrictions on the points of call in the respective territories as well as on the capacity on certain routes. The revised agreement not only does away with these restrictions but also permits code sharing, behind point operations etc.
The essential features of the revised agreement are:
Both countries shall have the right to designate as many airlines as they wish.
The designated airlines can mount any number of services between the two countries.
Airlines of either country can operate to any point in the territory of other contracting party to/through any beyond/intermediate points.
The designated airlines can also exercise operational flexibility. Each designated airline may, on any or all and at its options:
Operate flights in either or both directions;
Combine different flight numbers within one aircraft operation;
Serve, intermediate, and beyond point and points in the territories of the parties on the routes in ant combination or order;
Omit stops at any points or points;
Transfer traffic from any of its aircraft to any of its other aircraft at any points or routes;
Serve points behind any point in its territory with or without change of aircraft or flights number and may hold out and advertise such services to the public as through services; without directional or geographic limitation and without loss of any right to carry traffic otherwise permissible under this Agreement; provided that with the exception of all – cargo services, the service serves a point in the territory of the country designating the airline.
MC/GK
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