Open Skies

Open skies is an international policy concept that calls for the liberalization of the rules and regulations of the international aviation industry—especially commercial aviation—in order to create a free-market environment for the airline industry. Its primary objectives are:

For open skies to become effective, a bilateral (and sometimes multilateral) Air Transport Agreement must be concluded between two or more nations.

Since World War II, most states have invested national pride in the creation and defence of airlines (sometimes called flag carriers or legacy airlines). Air transportation differs from many other forms of commerce, not only because it has a major international component, but also because many of these airlines were wholly or partly government owned. Thus, as international competition grew, various degrees of protectionism were imposed.

A bilateral air transport agreement is a contract to liberalize aviation services, usually commercial civil aviation, between two contracting states. A bilateral air services agreement allows the airlines of both states to launch commercial flights that covers the transport of passengers and cargoes of both countries. A bilateral agreement may sometimes include the transport of military personnel of the contracting states.

In a bilateral agreement, the contracting states may allow the airlines of the contracting parties to bring passengers and cargoes to a third country or pick up passengers and cargoes from the host country to the home country of the airline or to a third country in which the contracting states has existing open skies agreement.

A multilateral air services agreement is the same as bilateral agreement, the only difference being that it involves more than two contracting states.

The Convention on International Civil Aviation (1944), signed at Chicago (also called the Chicago Convention), was intended to prepare a framework within which civil air transport could develop (not military or other state activities whether in a piloted or drone craft). It introduced nine freedoms of the air for those states that have adopted the Convention and enter into bilateral treaties that may grant any of the following rights or privileges for scheduled international air services:

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