Sri Lanka and Singapore agree open skies deal

Airline Industry Information, Nov 16, 2004

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Sri Lanka and Singapore have signed a new open skies agreement, giving carriers from both countries unlimited access to each other's airspace.

The new deal follows an open skies cargo agreement struck in October 2003 and will take immediate effect. A spokesperson for Singapore's Ministry of Transport said that the deal has come at an opportune time when air travel in Asia is set to grow dramatically.

At the moment Singapore Airlines offers seven flights to Columbo from Singapore with Sri Lankan Airlines operating eight services in the opposite direction, four of which are codesharing routes with Emirates Airlines.

Passenger traffic between the two countries for the first nine months of 2004 was up 27.2% compared with the same period in 2002, reports Dow Jones.

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