Madurai excluded from ASEAN air routes, AATC demands action

MADURAI: Many stakeholders of the Agri and All Trade Chamber (AATC), Madurai, have sought intervention from the Civil Aviation Ministry to take immediate steps on introducing direct air connectivity from ASEAN countries to Madurai to boost tourism.

Efforts should be made to add Madurai as an additional point of tourism along with 18 points already offered to the ASEAN, enabling at least these Southeast Asian countries to introduce direct flights to Madurai immediately without waiting for BASA (Bilateral Airport Services Agreement), S Rethinavelu, president of AATC said.

ASEAN Open Skies Policy, also known as the ASEAN Single Aviation Market (ASAM), came into force on January 1, 2015.

ASEAN – India Air Connectivity Report observed that air services could facilitate a larger number of tourists between India and 10 ASEAN countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

To promote tourism, ASAM called for new routes to facilitate the operation of more flights, particularly connecting tier-II or tier-III cities of India.

“The new routes might be negotiated with ASEAN under the BASA or through the ASEAN-India Air Transport Agreement without any restriction as to the frequency of aircraft and without being subject to any commercial agreement,” he said.

In response to ASAM call, India has offered 18 additional points of tourism in our country including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Cochin, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Jaipur, Khajuraho, Lucknow, Patna, Port Blair, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchy, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam.

In this list, it’s shocking that Madurai that prides itself on being a prominent tourism city of India having connectivity to other pilgrimage and tourism centres like Rameswaram, Dhanushkodi, Kanniyakumari, Courtallam and Kodaikanal was not included.

Most of the cities included have absolutely no potential to have international connectivity with any of the ASEAN countries.

As per the list of points of call as of March 7, 2023, released by Civil Aviation Department, it includes 18 cities as ‘Points of Calls’ with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam mostly without BASA agreement.

Had Madurai been included in the list of 18 tourism points, there would have been direct flights from most of these countries by now.

In a representation to the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, the Chamber has sought an appointment to meet with him at his office to have a detailed discussion.