India opens 11 new international routes
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The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has decided to open 11 new international routes under the bilateral Air Services Agreements (ASAs). The 
rights to new routes will be given to the national carrier Air India as well as other Indian scheduled carriers.
The ministry has given a green light to 10 routes from New Delhi connecting mostly Asian destinations, while Mumbai was granted with just one route. Under the ASA, Delhi will now be connected to Guangzhou, Yangon, Tashkent, Ho Chi Minh City, Almaty, Macau, Addis Ababa, Melbourne and Sydney. Mumbai will see addition of flights to Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam.
Civil Aviation Minister, Ajit Singh said; “We had earlier reviewed the utilisation of traffic rights under bilateral and have decided to allow the Indian Scheduled Carriers including Air India to utilise the bilaterals till the time they reach the maximum permissible limit under ASAs.”
He added that while finalising the guidelines to ensure optimum utilisation of traffic rights, it was agreed that Air India’s operational plan would receive due consideration in allocation of traffic rights and entitlements.
A total of 513 services have been allocated to private carriers in addition to their existing allocation.
