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Direct flight to Pakistan from Chennai

LAHORE: If Pakistan and India implement an agreement reached on Friday, Chennai will soon be linked to Pakistan by a direct flight, as will Islamabad to India.

The additional destinations in both countries to the existing two on each side — Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan, and Delhi and Mumbai in India — were written into a Memorandum of Understanding signed by civil aviation officials of both countries after two-day talks in Islamabad that ended on Friday.

The direct link to Islamabad will also enable connectivity between the two capitals. At present, there are no direct flights between Delhi and Islamabad, and passengers travelling between the two have to change at Lahore, which turns a two-hour journey into a day’s trip.

A joint statement said the two sides also agreed to designate three airlines each to operate on the specified routes. Now only Indian and Pakistan International Airlines operate on the routes between the two countries.

The two sides have also agreed to increase the frequency of flights from the present 12 to 28 a week.

According to the joint statement, both sides acknowledged that developments in the aviation industry during the past few years necessitated a re-look at the existing Air Services Agreement between India and Pakistan.

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