NZ to operate daily flights to India

New Zealand and Indian governments agreed Tuesday to operate daily flights between the two countries.

According to a news release issued here, New Zealand Minister for Economic Development Trevor Mallard and the Indian Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Prafel Patel will sign an agreement on the flights in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Under the new air services agreement negotiated last October, New Zealand airlines can operate seven own-aircraft services per week to Mumbai via Australia and/or Singapore. Additionally, they can code-share with an Indian partner airline to five Indian cities -- Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata -- as often as they wish. These code share services can also be via Australia and/or Singapore.

Indian airlines can operate own-aircraft services to Auckland, and code-share to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin, big cities of New Zealand.

Mallard said the agreement marks the beginning of a positive new era for air services between the two countries.

"We've had an Air Services Agreement with India since 1996. However, although this allowed Air New Zealand to repatriate funds earned on ticket sales in India, arrangements for airline operations were never finalized," said Mallard.

"India now has a booming aviation market, with many more people able and wishing to travel. We wanted to create the opportunity to tap into that market," said Mallard.

Mallard is leading an education mission to India to help promote New Zealand's export education industry to Indian students and education institutions. As associate finance minister, he will also be attending the Asian Development Bank conference in Hyderabad.

Source: Xinhua