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 convention 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.

While it was agreed that the third to fifth freedoms shall be negotiated between states, the International Air Transport Agreement (or the "Five Freedoms Agreement") was also opened for signatures, encompassing the first five freedoms.

Several other "freedoms" have since been added, although most are not officially recognised under international bilateral treaties they have been agreed by a number of countries; for example, Aer Lingus had fifth freedom rights through Manchester to various European destinations prior to EU liberalisation and Pan Am had rights through London for many years.

Overview

Freedoms of the air apply to commercial aviation (carrying paying passengers, transporting cargo or mail). In the sections below, every freedom is explained thoroughly.

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 - Jeddah, as a Saudi Arabian company
6th	the right to fly from a foreign country to another one while stopping in one's own country for non-technical reasons	Jeddah - Tel Aviv - Paris, as an Israeli company
7th	the right to fly between two foreign countries while not offering flights to one's own country	Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta, as a Israeli 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	Kuala Lumpur - Penang, as a Israeli company

First freedom

The first freedom is the right to fly over a foreign country without landing. It is also known as the technical freedom. 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, although most countries require prior notification before an overflight, and 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.

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.

                     

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 from mainland China and Taiwan. Also, 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.

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.

Third freedom

The third freedom is the right to carry passengers or cargo from one's own country to another.

The third freedom was the first commercial freedom.

               

Fourth freedom

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.

                 

Fifth freedom

 The fifth freedom, also referred to as beyond rights, 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 Airlines flight originating in Dubai, then going on 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 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. 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-eighties 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 six airlines not based in either Thailand or Hong Kong. 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 also 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.

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.

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. Iceland air 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 sky 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).

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. 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.

In the 1950s through the early 1970s, BOAC flights from London to New York to Los Angeles to Honolulu permitted London origination passengers to make stopovers inside the U.S. In the 1980s and 1990s, El Al Israeli airlines had similar rights for passengers to/from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles, which stopped in New York. JAT Yugoslav Airlines had similar rights in the 1980s from Zagreb to Chicago to Los Angeles.

Currently, Eva Air of Taiwan flies from Taipei to Seattle to Newark, with the right for Taipei/Newark passengers to make a stopover in Seattle, if continuing later on to Newark, and vice versa. Likewise, Qantas Airways of Australia flies from Sydney to Los Angeles with continuing service to New York-JFK. Qantas is not permitted to sell standalone tickets on the Los Angeles-New York part of this trip, but it does sell tickets that start in New York and connect in Los Angeles to other Qantas flights on to Brisbane or Melbourne. United Airlines flies passengers from Melbourne to Sydney, to connect to its LAX and SFO services.

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.