More scope for passengers flying with Singapore Airlines

An aviation deal has been agreed between Singapore and the UK.

This new deal will allow Singapore Airlines to pick passengers up from Britain and carry them elsewhere including the US. This will be the same for British carriers in Singapore.

The deal has been described by Singapore as "more liberal" than other agreements and will give the scope for airlines from different nations to operate the same as domestic carriers.

This isn't such a strange concept to Singapore as they already have a similar arrangement with United Arab Emirates. For Britain it's a first.

"This is indeed a trail-blazing agreement concluded between two forward-looking countries that share a common objective of promoting free competition," said Singapore's transport minister Raymond Lim.

We will start to see these changes from March 2008.