Trichy: With the United Arab Emirates (UAE) willing to add more flights and routes to connect regional airports in India, expectations are high among travel agents' associations, exporters, trade association and travel federations here that Trichy will be included among the probable destinations.According to reports, UAE Ambassador Dr Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Banna has expressed his willingness to add a few more flights and routes to connect regional airports in India with affordable pricing. To pursue this plan, both India and the UAE have agreed to hold a meeting between the General Civil Aviation Authority of UAE and the Civil Aviation Authority of India on October 3 and 4. The meet in Delhi will thrash out a new agreement and policy for bilateral air services agreement (BASA).G Ravichandran, chairman of Travel Agents Associations of India, South Tamil Nadu Chapter, said that they have been campaigning for years to bring in flights from Gulf countries where thousands of people from the state are employed. Once flights to Trichy commenced from UAE, the patronage would only go up, he said. Inclusion of Trichy airport as a point of call in BASA between India and Gulf countries has been a long-pending demand from the travel industry in Trichy, he opined."The runway length in Trichy is not an issue as all service providers have started operating light weight carriers. The deciding factor will be the civil aviation ministry's keenness to concentrate on regional airports like Trichy. We have already made many representations to civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju in this regard. However, the matter is still pending. If the meeting is confirmed, we would pursue the matter with the ministry", he added.As per the civil aviation agreement, when capacity on routes between UAE and India reaches 80 per cent, new quotas to be shared between air carriers in both countries should be renegotiated. Airlines in the UAE want to increase capacity to enable more passengers to fly to destinations in the UAE and connect with other airports in the gulf and also want to provide affordable and reasonable prices," said J John Nicholas, RL Aviation Services from Trichy. "So we should utilise the opportunity to turn the situation in our favour", he added.When contacted, P Kumar, MP and chairman of the Trichy airport advisory committee, said that a request from the UAE to include Trichy airport as a point of call in BASA has been under the consideration of the civil aviation ministry for many years. I will try to convey our requirement to the civil aviation minister and pressurise him to pursue with UAE authorities the chances of including Trichy as one of their destination," he said.

Stay updated with all the Latest Trichy headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.