Civil aviation officials of Nepal and India on September 10 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the revision of bilateral Air Service Agreement and a technical accord, facilitating five-fold increase in air seats between the two countries.

Now onwards, designated airlines of both the countries can have a maximum seat capacity of 60,000 per week. As per the agreement, the airlines operate a maximum of 10,000 seats per week to and from Mumbai and Bangalore each and 15,000 seats to and from New Delhi. However, this provision will no longer be effective from January 1, 2011.

According to MoU, Nepali airlines can operate flights from 21 points, including three new points – Dehradun, Gorakhpur and Bagdogra – for Nepal, while the Indian airlines can operate flights in Pokhara, Lumbini, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Janakpur, Dhangadhi and Bhairahawa. However, operation of international flights in these destinations will not be possible at the moment. The MoU facilitates Nepal to operate flights to Indian cities like Goa, Amritsar and Kochi.

As per the new agreement, any third country-bound Nepali flights are eligible to take passengers from any of these Indian destinations. Likewise, the designated airlines of both the countries can operate unlimited number of cargo flights with full third, fourth and fifth freedom traffic rights