New Delhi, Jan 01: India and Saudi Arabia have decided to raise the frequency of their flights to the two countries by nine and add new destinations, with Saudi Airlines being allowed to operate to Kochi, Calicut and Hyderabad from Riyadh. The new changes would be effective from the next fiscal, as per the bilateral air services agreement signed last week in that country.

Official sources said earlier there was a cap of six flights to be operated to Riyadh, which had now been raised to nine leading to the fulfilment of a major and long-pending demand of travellers from India. The overall frequencies have been increased from 24 to 31 and the passenger capacity from 7,700 to 8,600 seats per week in each destination.

When contacted, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said the latest agreement was "a win-win situation" for both countries and would take care of the long-pending problems of passengers, especially those from Kerala. The sources said with the increase in number of flights to Riyadh from six to nine would lead Air India to take out its B-747 aircraft from that route and deploy the comparatively smaller aircraft A-310s. The Boeing jumbo would now be deployed on the New Jersey route on which the frequency could be increased, they said.

Bureau Report