Istanbul and Ulaanbaatar will be directly connected to each other after Turkey and Mongolia signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) in civil aviation.

The deal comes after civil aviation authorities of the two countries came together in the Mongolian capital on Sept. 19-20 to discuss and develop bilateral civil aviation relations.

The delegations of the two countries, chaired by general director of Civil Aviation, Bahri Kesici, and Dorjgotov Myagmarsure, director of air transport policies at the Ministry of Highways and Transportation of Mongolia, discussed technical cooperation issues in addition to the ongoing seat restriction demands of airline carriers.

The new agreement envisages an increase of 300% in seat capacity to 800 seats, up from the current 500. In addition, a way has been paved for Istanbul-Ulaanbatar flights, currently being operated as fifth freedom flights over Bishkek, Kyrgzstan, to be carried out directly.

With the new arrangement, passenger comfort will increase significantly with the help of three weekly flights that will be carried out by wide-bodied aircraft between the two capitals, while the duration of flights will be shortened by two hours.