**Pakistan-Afghanistan to increase weekly flights to 10 **
Thursday, January 17, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday agreed to enhance the three weekly flights to 10 with a total of 1,000 passengers per week in each direction.
The decision was taken during the bilateral air services agreement talks held at the Defence Ministry in Rawalpindi. The new arrangement would allow the designated airlines of the two countries to enhance number of weekly flights but the type of aircraft would not exceed the capacity of B-737 or equivalent.
Pakistan granted ‘Open Sky’ for passenger and cargo operations to/from Gwadar International Airport to the designated airlines of Afghanistan and agreed to provide a list of training courses also with relevant details to the Afghan side through diplomatic channels.
The Pakistani side was led by Major General Mir Haider Ali Khan, additional secretary ministry of defence, while the Afghan side was headed by Engineer Raz Muhammad Alami during the negotiations. irfan ghauri