India and Greece have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which will lax the aviation rules between the two countries. This means, there will be no restrictions on the number of flights and seats flown between them.

“We have signed a MoU and initiated the Air Service Agreement (ASA) with Greece for Open Skies with them. Greece will become the first country [for India] with an Open Skies arrangement under [India’s] new civil aviation policy,” RN Choubey, the civil aviation secretary of India, announced at the Global Airport Development (GAD) Asia Conference, held yesterday.

Choubey added that as per the Open Skies arrangement, India will allow Greek airlines to schedule as many flights as they deem appropriate to six Indian airports — Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai. Likewise, Indian airlines can schedule as many flights to Greece, but without the restriction on the number of airports they can access there.

India hopes to enter into more such agreements with other nations.“We have written a note verbale to all the 109 countries with which India has a bilateral agreement conveying to them about our Open Skies policy under the new civil aviation policy,” Choubey said at the conference.

Further, India has exhausted its seat entitlement to Dubai. It will speak with the emirate about possibilities of increasing the number of seats from India after discussing requirements with its airlines — Air India, Air India Express, Jet Airways, IndiGo, and SpiceJet.