Korea expands international air service agreements

South Korea is expanding its air services agreements (ASAs) with key international destinations, including India and Austria.

The new agreement with India raises allocations from 6X-weekly to 19X-weekly for carriers between the two countries, and also includes a relaxation of codeshare restrictions between operators in the two countries.

The Austria-Korea agreement is more wide-ranging and completely removes any restrictions on flight numbers for direct services between the two countries. The previous ASA saw only 4X-weekly flight schedules, with Korean Air taking the majority (3X-weekly) between Korea's Incheon International and Austria's Vienna International.

This open agreement with Austria is only the second of its type for Korea; it has a similar unrestricted numbers ASA with Spanish operators as part of its push into European markets.

Both moves are likely to see an increase in operators on both route sectors. Korean Air currently flies 3X-weekly to Mumbai from Incheon and Air India has a 4X-weekly service from New Delhi to Incheon, but the increased flight options will likely see other key destinations such as Chennai and Bangalore added to schedules, a spokesperson for Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) said.

MLIT also said it had signed extended ASAs with countries including Zimbabwe and Mongolia for direct flight permissions in 2016, and was talking to Brunei, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Singapore and Finland to add to existing ASA provisions.