India and UK sign MoU to ease restrictions on UK-India services
India's Ministry of Civil Aviation stated (09-Feb-2017) India and the UK signed a MoU to ease restrictions on the number of scheduled services between the two countries. Limits on flights from key Indian cities including Chennai and Kolkata have been eliminated, allowing for a greater range of services. The agreement also opened all destinations in the UK for Indian carriers for codeshare services and reciprocally the UK carriers can also operate codeshare flights to any international airport in India, through domestic codeshare arrangements. Tourism from India makes an important contribution to the UK economy. In 2015, there were 422,000 visits from India to the UK, bringing more than GBP433 million to the economy. Around 2.5 million passengers travel direct between the UK and India p/a with 88 scheduled services per week in each direction between the two countries. [more - original PR] [more - original PR - II]