India to settle landing rights with Russia, Malaysia

New Delhi: India is working to resolve recent differences with Malaysia and Russia regarding landing rights and overflights.
A civil aviation ministry official here said no ban has been imposed on Malaysia Airlines flights as reported recently but admitted that the government was unhappy with Kuala Lumpur’s decision not to give landing rights to two of its carriers. He said there had been a misunderstanding.
“We didn’t issue any ban but we did ask why the two airlines (Air India Express and Air Sahara) were not allowed to land in Malaysia under the Asean agreement. We said that if our (Indian) carriers are not allowed (more landing rights) under the Asean agreement, then Malaysian Airlines should not also be given similar rights under the same agreement,” the official said.
A meeting has been scheduled on 14 and 15 June in Moscow in the wake of a near diplomatic row between India and Russia over passage rights for their respective airlines a week ago. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had banned operations of Russian airlines, Aeroflot and Transco, in a tit-for-tat move after Russia’s decision to bar Air-India and Jet Airways flights over its airspace. Both countries stepped back from the confrontation and blamed the standoff on a “communication gap.”
25/05/07 Sanjay Singh/The Statesman

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Categories: Foreign May 2007, General Aviation May 2007