New Delhi, November 12:

India and the US will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) tomorrow to expand bilateral cooperation in civil aviation that will build on the existing open skies pact between the two countries.

According to officials in the Ministry of Civil Aviation here, the MoU is a part of the US-India Aviation Cooperation Programme (ACP) that would help the aviation sector in both the countries to come closer on the issues of technical assistance, job training and

personnel exchange programmes. “The MoU between the two countries would help to execute the initiatives related to open routes, capacity, frequencies, designations, pricing, marketing arrangements and code sharing,” a senior official in the ministry said.

The initiatives on these issues have come forth after the historic civil aviation pact signed between India and US in April this year und-er the open skies policy of India.

“The high priority given to the Indian civil aviation sector by the US authorities is quite evident.” Before India, the US had such ties in the aviation sector only with China. The US is keen to integrate current US public and private investments in India’s aviation sector.