'Freedoms of the Air'

• 1st Freedom: Overflight for Airline A through country B’s airspace

• 2nd Freedom: Technical stop for Airline A in country B. NB - no commercial rights

• 3rd Freedom:
  
  • (1) Commercial right for country A’s Airline A to pick up passengers and freight in its own territory, carry them to and set them down in another country, B
  • (2): Commercial right for country B’s Airline B to pick up passengers and freight in another territory A, carry them to and set them down in their home country

• 4th Freedom:
  
  • (1) Commercial right for country A’s Airline A to pick up passengers and freight in another territory B, carry them to and set them down in their home country
  • (2): Commercial right for country B’s Airline B to pick up passengers and freight country A’s territory, carry them to and set them down in their own country, B

• 5th Freedom: Commercial right for country A’s Airline A to pick up passengers and freight in its own territory, carry them to and set them down in another country (=3rd Freedom). THEN, to pick up passengers and freight in country B to carry onwards to country C (and return)

• 6th Freedom: This right is NOT usually granted in bilateral ASAs. It is simply a combination of 3rd and 4th Freedoms, used by an airline which is based geographically between the origin and destination points.  ie 3+4 = 6.

• 7th Freedom: This right is rarely granted (except for cargo operations), because it effectively allows a foreign airline A to base in country B and fly with full rights to and from third countries. It is like 5th Freedom, without the 3rd ie 5-3=7…

The pillars of international commercial aviation

• Chicago Convention 1944 - Multilateral. It sets out the basis for standardised international practices and procedures. Almost every state in the world is party. It goes NOT grant any commercial rights
• International Air Services Transit Agreement 1944 - Multilateral. It grants 1st and 2nd Freedom rights. Most, but not all states are party
• Bilateral air services agreements - about 2,000 of these since 1945. States bilaterally grant each others’ designated airlines (“flag carriers”) commercial rights to fly between their respective states - 3rd and 4th Freedoms. A growing number also grant 5th Freedom - see column for information on the 'Freedoms of the Air'.

National ownership of airlines

The Chicago Convention says airlines must have national ownership (originally, mainly to ensure adequate technical supervision). Bilateral agreements set out what this means - typically “substantial ownership and effective control” of the “designated airline(s)” requirement in ASAs (but this is changing - for example, to base ownership on where the primary place of doing business is and where the management decisions are made).

So long as airline rights are defined by ownership, the old, protective bilateral system will continue. However, many countries are now actively liberalising aviation access to drive economic and trade growth.

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