Freedoms of the air

The freedoms of the air are a set of commercial aviation rights granting a country's airline(s) the privilege to enter and land in another country's airspace, formulated as a result of disagreements over the extent of aviation liberalisation in the Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944, known as the Chicago Convention. The United States had called for a standardized set of separate air rights which may be negotiated between states, but most of the other countries involved were concerned that the size of the U.S. airlines would dominate all world air travel if there were not strict rules. The freedoms of the air are the fundamental building blocks of the international commercial aviation route network. The use of the terms 'freedom' and 'right' only confer entitlement to operate international air services within the scope of the multilateral and bilateral treaties (air services agreements) that allow them.

The first two freedoms solely concern the passage of commercial aircraft through foreign airspace and airports and contrast with the remaining freedoms which concern airlines carrying people, mail and cargo internationally. The first through fifth freedoms are officially enumerated by international treaties, especially the Chicago Convention. Several other freedoms have since been added and although most are not officially recognised under international treaties, they have been agreed by a number of countries. The lower-numbered freedoms are relatively universal while the higher-numbered ones are rarer and more controversial. Liberal open skies agreements often represent the least restrictive form of air services agreements and may include many if not all freedoms. They are relatively rare but examples include the recently developed single aviation markets in the European Union and between Australia and New Zealand.

Overview

Freedoms of the air apply to commercial aviation (carrying paying passengers, transporting cargo or mail). The terms 'freedom' and 'right' are a shorthand way of referring to the type of international services permitted between two or more countries. Even when such services are allowed by countries, airlines may still face restrictions to accessing them by the terms of treaties or for other reasons.

Freedom	Description	Example
1st	the right to fly over a foreign country, without landing there	Toronto - Mexico City, as a Canadian company, overflying the United States.
2nd	the right to refuel or carry out maintenance in a foreign country on the way to another country	Toronto - Mexico City, as a Canadian company, but stopping for fuel in the United States.
3rd	the right to fly from one's own country to another	Toronto - Chicago, as a Canadian company
4th	the right to fly from another country to one's own	Toronto - Chicago, as an American company
5th	the right to fly between two foreign countries during flights while the flight originates or ends in one's own country	Bangkok - Kuala Lumpur - Doha, as a Qatari company
6th	the right to fly from a foreign country to another one while stopping in one's own country for non-technical reasons	Dubai - Cairo - Paris, as an Egyptian company
7th	the right to fly between two foreign countries while not offering flights to one's own country	Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta, as an Italian company
8th	the right to fly between two or more airports in a foreign country while continuing service to one's own country	Chicago - New York - Toronto, as a Canadian company
9th	the right to fly inside a foreign country without continuing service to one's own country	Beijing - Shanghai, as an Italian company

Transit rights

The first and second freedoms grant airlines the right to pass through a country without carrying traffic that originates or terminates there and are thus known as 'transit rights'. The Chicago Convention in 1944 was successful in drawing up a multilateral agreement in which the first two freedoms, known as the International Air Services Transit Agreement (IASTA) or "Two Freedoms Agreement", were open to all signatories. As of mid-2007, the treaty is accepted by 129 countries.

Whether through airspace or airports a country granting transit rights may impose fees for the privilege. The reasonableness of such fees has caused controversy at times.

First freedom

IASTA participants (and some of their colonies)

The first freedom is the right to fly over a foreign country without landing. It grants the privilege to fly over the territory of a treaty country without landing. Member states of the International Air Services Transit Agreement grant this freedom (as well as the second freedom) to other member states, subject to the transiting aircraft using designated air routes. As of the summer of 2007, 129 countries were parties to this treaty, including such large ones as the United States of America, India, and Australia. However, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, and China never joined, and Canada left the treaty in 1988. These large and strategically located non-IASTA-member states prefer to maintain tighter control over foreign airlines' overflight of their airspace, and negotiate transit agreements with other countries on a case-by-case basis. Since the end of the Cold War, first freedom rights are almost completely universal. Most countries require prior notification before an overflight, and may charge substantial fees for the privilege.

IASTA allows each member country to charge foreign airlines "reasonable" fees for using its airports (which is applicable, presumably, only to the second freedom) and "facilities"; according to IATA, such fees should not be higher than those charged to domestic airlines engaged in similar international services. Such fees indeed are commonly charged merely for the privilege of the overflight of a country's national territory, when no airport usage is involved. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration of the U.S., an IASTA signatory, as of 2009 charges the so-called enroute fees, of US$33.72 per 100 nautical miles (190 km), of great circle distance from point of entry of an aircraft into the U.S.-controlled airspace to the point of its exit from this airspace. In addition, a lower fee (a so-called oceanic fee) of $15.94 per 100 nautical miles (190 km) is charged for flying over the international waters where air traffic is controlled by the U.S., which includes sections of Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. Countries that are not signatories of the IASTA charge overflight fees as well; among them, Russia, is known for charging high fees, especially on the transarctic routes between North America and Asia, which cross Siberia. In 2008, Russia temporarily denied Lufthansa Cargo permission to overfly its airspace with cargo ostensibly due to "delayed payments for its flyover rights". European airlines pay Russia €300 million a year for flyover permissions for its airlines.

Second freedom

The second freedom allows technical stops without the embarking or disembarking of passengers or cargo. It is the right to stop in one country solely for refueling or other maintenance on the way to another country. Because of longer range of modern airliners, second freedom rights are comparatively rarely exercised by passenger carriers today, but they are widely used by air cargo carriers, and are more or less universal between countries.

The most famous example of the second freedom is Shannon Airport, which was used as a stopping point for most North Atlantic flights until the 1960s. Anchorage was similarly used for flights between Western Europe and East Asia, bypassing Soviet airspace, until the 1980s. Anchorage is still used by some mainland Chinese and Taiwanese airlines for flights to the U.S. and Toronto until 2000s. Flights between Europe and South Africa often stopped at Ilha do Sal (Sal Island), off the coast of Senegal, due to many African nations refusing to allow South African flights to overfly their territory during the Apartheid regime. Gander, Newfoundland was also a frequent stopping point for airlines from the USSR and East Germany on the way to the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico and South America.

Traffic rights

In contrast to transit rights, 'traffic rights' allow commercial international services between, through and in some cases within the countries that are parties to air services agreements or other treaties. While it was agreed that the third to fifth freedoms shall be negotiated between states, the International Air Transport Agreement (or "Five Freedoms Agreement") was also opened for signatures, encompassing the first five freedoms. The remaining four freedoms are made possible by some air services agreements but are not 'officially' recognized because they are not mentioned by the Chicago Convention.

Third and fourth freedom

The third and fourth freedoms allow basic international service between two countries. Even when reciprocal third and fourth freedom rights are granted air services agreements (e.g. the Bermuda Agreements) may still restrict many aspects of the traffic, such as the capacity of aircraft, the frequency of flights, the airlines permitted to fly and the airports permitted to be served. The third freedom is the right to carry passengers or cargo from one's own country to another. The right to carry passengers or cargo from another country to one's own is the fourth freedom. Third and fourth freedom rights are almost always granted simultaneously in bilateral agreements between countries.

Beyond rights

Beyond rights allow the carriage of traffic between (and sometimes within) countries that are foreign to the airlines that operate them. Today, the most controversial of these are fifth freedom rights. Less controversial but still restricted at times, though relatively more common are sixth freedom rights.

Beyond rights also encompass international flights with a foreign intermediate stop where passengers may only embark and disembark at the intermediate point on the leg of the flight that serves the origin of an airline operating it. It also includes 'stopover' traffic where passengers may embark or disembark at an intermediate stop as part of an itinerary between the endpoints of a multi-leg flight or connecting flights. Some international flights stop at multiple points in a foreign country and passengers may sometimes make stopovers in a similar manner, but because the traffic being carried does not originate in the country where the flight takes place it is not cabotage but another form of beyond rights.

Fifth freedom

The fifth freedom allows an airline to carry revenue traffic between foreign countries as a part of services connecting the airline's own country. It is the right to carry passengers from one's own country to a second country, and from that country to a third country (and so on). The "unofficial 'seventh freedom'", is a variation of the fifth freedom and allows international services wholly outside of an airline's origin. An example of a fifth freedom flight is a 2004 Emirates flight originating in Dubai to Brisbane, Australia, and then from Brisbane to Auckland, New Zealand, where tickets can be sold on any or all sectors, and in the reverse direction if flights are offered. Fifth freedom rights are typically meant to help airlines serve long distance and/or not heavily traveled routes and they are often viewed by local airlines and governments as potentially unfair competition to their primary (third and fourth freedom) international traffic rights. The negotiations for fifth freedom traffic can be lengthy because in practice the consent of at least three nations is usually required.

Fifth freedom rights were instrumental to the economic viability of long-haul flight until the early 1980s when advances in technology and increases in passenger volume allowed the introduction of more non-stop services. The excess capacity on lengthy multi-stage routes could be filled by picking up and dropping off along the way.It was not uncommon for carriers to schedule multiple stops in foreign countries on the way to a direct flight's final destination, especially those connecting Europe with Africa, South America and the Far East. An example of such multi-stage flying is a mid-1980s Rome—Tokyo Alitalia flight by way of Athens, Delhi, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Such routings in Asia approximated the Silk Road Fifth freedom flights are still highly common in East Asia, particularly routes serving Tokyo and the Bangkok—Hong Kong route, which, for example, at one point in 2004 was served by at least four airlines not based in either Thailand or Hong Kong. The Singapore-Bangkok route has also been a busy fifth freedom market, in the late 1990s half of the seats available between the cities were on fifth freedom flights. Other major markets which are served by numerous fifth freedom flights include Europe, South America, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic, and the Tasman Sea.

Fifth freedom rights are sought by airlines wishing to take up unserved and underserved routes, or those airlines whose flights already make technical stops at a location as allowed by the second freedom. Governments (e.g. Thailand) may sometimes encourage fifth freedom traffic as a way of promoting tourism by increasing the number of seats available, although there may be reactionary pressure to avoid liberalizing traffic rights too much to protect a flag carrier. By the 1990s fifth freedom rights stirred controversy in Asia because of loss-making services by airlines in the countries hosting them. Particularly in protest of US carriers' services in Asia, some countries have become less welcoming of fifth freedom traffic even while sixth freedom traffic has grown in importance for Asian airlines.

The Japan-United States bilateral agreement, crafted in 1952, had been especially contentious because of the provision that allowed for unlimited fifth freedom services for some US airlines beyond Japan. For example, in the early 1990s the Japanese government's refusal to permit flights on the New York—Osaka—Sydney route was protested by the US government and the airlines that applied for it. The Japanese government countered that about 10% of traffic on the sector to Australia was third and fourth freedom traffic to and from the US and that the bilateral agreement specified that primary justification for the unlimited fifth freedom flying was to fill up airplanes that have a majority of US third and fourth traffic already. Japan had many unused fifth freedom rights beyond the US but these are seen as less valuable than the the fifth freedom rights US airlines enjoy because of the higher operating costs of Japanese airlines and geographical circumstances; Japan serves as a useful gateway to Asia for American travelers in a way that is not comparable to the United States vis a vis the Americas and Japanese travelers. The US contended that Japan's useful gateway location and use of sixth freedom rights helped to level the playing field. In 1995 the treaty was updated by liberalizing Japanese access and placing additional restrictions on US carriers.

Sixth freedom

The unofficial sixth freedom combines the third freedom and fourth freedoms and is the right to carry passengers or cargo from a second country to a third country by stopping in one's own country. It can also be characterized as a form of the fifth freedom with an intermediate stop in the operating airline's home market. This characterization is often invoked as protectionist policy as the traffic, like fifth freedom traffic, is secondary in nature to third and fourth freedom traffic. Consequently some nations seek to regulate sixth freedom traffic as though it were fifth freedom traffic. China is an example of a country that restricts sixth freedom traffic from third party countries. Specifically, it is difficult for airlines to obtain permission from China to serve the country via codeshare flights from intermediate countries.

Because the nature of air services agreements is essentially a mercantilist negotiation that strives for an equitable exchange of traffic rights the outcome of a bilateral agreement may not be fully reciprocal but rather a reflection of the relative size and geographic position of two markets, especially in the case of a large country negotiating with a much smaller one. In exchange for a smaller state granting fifth freedom rights to a larger country, the smaller country may be able to intermediate sixth freedom traffic to onward destinations from the larger country.

Cathay Pacific, Thai Airways International, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and other airlines in Asia use sixth-freedom rights extensively to fly passengers between Europe and Australasia (also known as the Kangaroo Route). Likewise, American Airlines connects passengers from Europe and Asia to other countries in the Americas via U.S. ports. British Airways commonly tickets passengers from America to Asia via London. Icelandair sells tickets between Europe and North America via Iceland, Finnair sells tickets from North America to Asia via Helsinki.

Seventh freedom

The unofficial seventh freedom is a variation of the fifth freedom. It is the right to carry passengers or cargo between two foreign countries without any continuing service to one's own country.

The seventh freedom is rare because it is usually not in the commercial interest of airlines, except in Europe where an EU open skies has seen many carriers, particularly low cost carriers, operate flights between two points, with neither of them being in their home country. Ryanair has a wide variety of such routes. On 2 October 2007, the United Kingdom and Singapore signed an agreement that will allow unlimited seventh freedom rights from 30 March 2008 (along with a full exchange of other freedoms of the air).

Cabotage

Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country by a vessel or an aircraft registered in another country. Originally a shipping term, cabotage now also covers aviation, railways, and road transport. Cabotage is "trade or navigation in coastal waters, or, the exclusive right of a country to operate the air traffic within its territory".

Eighth freedom (consecutive cabotage)

The unofficial eighth freedom is the right to carry passengers or cargo between two or more points in one foreign country and is also known as cabotage. It is extremely rare outside of Europe. The main real life example of eighth-freedom rights is the European Union, which has granted such rights between all of its member states. Other examples of an exchange of this right include the Single Aviation Market (SAM) established between Australia and New Zealand in 1996 and the 2001 Protocol to the Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalization of International Air Transportation (MALIAT) between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. Otherwise, such rights have usually only been granted in isolated instances where the domestic air network is very underdeveloped. A notable instance was Pan Am's authority to fly between Frankfurt and West Berlin from the 1950s to 1980s, although political circumstances, not the state of the domestic air network, dictated this - only airlines of the Allied Powers of France, the United Kingdom and the United States had the right to land aircraft in West Berlin.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, the United Kingdom and New Zealand concluded an agreement granting unlimited cabotage rights. Given the distance between the two countries, the agreement can be seen as reflecting a political principle rather than an expectation that these rights will be taken up in the near future. New Zealand had previously exchanged eighth-freedom rights with Ireland in 1999.

Ninth freedom (stand alone cabotage)

The right to carry passengers or cargo within a foreign country without continuing service to or from one's own country.

Sometimes also known as "stand alone cabotage." It differs from the aviation definition of "true cabotage," in that it does not directly relate to one's own country.

The EU agreements mentioned above also fall under this category.

Ryanair, an Irish low cost airline maintains an extensive network inside Italy and has routes in France, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Volotea, a Spanish low cost airline maintains networks in both Italy and France.
easyJet, a British low cost airline maintains networks in both Italy and France.
Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, a Norwegian low cost airline maintains networks in both Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

See also

• Bilateral agreement
• Bilateral Air Transport Agreement
• Freedom of movement

External links

• ICAO Freedoms of the Air
• Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalization of International Air Transportation (MALIAT)
• Basic Position of Japanese Side in Japan-Us Passenger Air Talks (1996)

Notes

^A Even when fifth freedom rights are in place further restrictions on capacity and frequency may result in an airline only using the rights for stopover traffic or not being able to carry any traffic at all.

^B Because of this three types of fifth freedom traffic can be distinguished: 'intermediate point', where the right is granted from a third country to a second one between the third and the grantee; 'beyond-point', where the country giving the right allows traffic to continue to third countries; and 'behind-point' or 'anterior-point' where the grantor allows service between other destinations outside of the grantee's country of origin.