An air transport agreement (also sometimes called an air service agreement or ATA or ASA) is a bilateral agreement to allow international commercial air transport services between signatories.
The bilateral system has its basis under the Chicago Convention and associated multilateral treaties. The Chicago Convention was signed in December 1944 and has governed international air services since then. the convention also has a range of annexes covering issues such as aviation security, safety oversight, airworthiness, navigation, environmental protection and facilitation (expediting and departure at airports).
In 1913, in what was probably the earliest such agreement, a bilateral exchange of notes [1] was signed between Germany and France to provide for airship services.
One of the first ATAs following World War II was the Bermuda Agreement, which was signed in 1946 by the United Kingdom and the United States. Features of this agreement became models for the thousands of such agreements that were to follow, although in recent decades some of the traditional clauses in such agreements have been modified (or "liberalized") in accordance with "open skies" policies adopted by some governments, notably the United States. [2]
In principle all ATAs should be registered by the International Civil Aviation Organization in DAGMAR, [3] the ICAO's Database of Aeronautical Agreements and Arrangements, but this source is not absolutely comprehensive.
Air service agreements (ASA) are formal treaties between countries – accompanying memoranda of understanding (MoU) and exchanges of formal diplomatic notes. It is not mandatory to have an ASA in place for international services to operate, but the cases where services exist without treaty are rare.
ASAs cover the basic framework under which airlines are granted economic bilateral rights to fly two countries. The frequency, the designated airlines of the two signing countries, origin and intermediate points, traffic rights, type of aircraft and tax issues are normally covered by MoUs.
The International Civil Aviation Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It changes the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. Its headquarters is located in the Quartier International of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet or the ICAO phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet. The ITU phonetic alphabet and figure code is a variant.
The freedoms of the air are a set of commercial aviation rights granting a country's airlines the privilege to enter and land in another country's airspace. They were 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 to be negotiated between states, but most other countries were concerned that the size of the U.S. airlines would dominate 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" confers entitlement to operate international air services only within the scope of the multilateral and bilateral treaties that allow them.
The Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the UN charged with coordinating international air travel. The Convention establishes rules of airspace, aircraft registration and safety, security, and sustainability, and details the rights of the signatories in relation to air travel. The Convention also contains provisions pertaining to taxation.
The Bermuda Agreement, reached in 1946 by American and British negotiators in Bermuda, was an early bilateral air transport agreement regulating civil air transport. It established a precedent for the signing of approximately 3,000 other such agreements between countries. The Agreement was replaced by the Bermuda II Agreement, which was signed in 1977 and effective in 1978.
Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country by a transport operator from another country. It originally applied to shipping along coastal routes, port to port, but now applies to aviation, railways, and road transport as well.
The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, commonly known as EUROCONTROL, is an international organisation working to achieve safe and seamless air traffic management across Europe. Founded in 1960, EUROCONTROL currently has 41 member states and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It has several local sites as well, including R&D activities in Brétigny-sur-Orge, France, the Institute of Air Navigation Training (IANS) in Luxembourg, and the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The organisation employs approximately two thousand people, and operates with an annual budget in excess of half a billion Euro.
Bermuda II was a bilateral air transport agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States signed on 23 July 1977 as a renegotiation of the original 1946 Bermuda air services agreement. A new open skies agreement was signed by the United States and the European Union (EU) on 30 April 2007 and came into effect on 30 March 2008, thus replacing Bermuda II.
The Paris Convention of 1919 was the first international convention to address the political difficulties and intricacies involved in international aerial navigation. The convention was concluded under the auspices of the International Commission for Air Navigation. It attempted to reduce the confusing patchwork of ideologies and regulations which differed by country by defining certain guiding principles and provisions, and was signed in Paris on October 13, 1919.
Aviation law is the branch of law that concerns flight, air travel, and associated legal and business concerns. Some of its area of concern overlaps that of admiralty law and, in many cases, aviation law is considered a matter of international law due to the nature of air travel. However, the business aspects of airlines and their regulation also fall under aviation law. In the international realm, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) provides general rules and mediates international concerns to an extent regarding aviation law. The ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations.
In aviation, an Aeronautical Information Publication is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization as a publication issued by or with the authority of a state and containing aeronautical information of a lasting character essential to air navigation. It is designed to be a manual containing thorough details of regulations, procedures and other information pertinent to flying aircraft in the particular country to which it relates. It is usually issued by or on behalf of the respective civil aviation administration.
The EU–US Open Skies Agreement is an open skies air transport agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). The agreement allows any airline of the European Union and any airline of the United States to fly between any point in the European Union and any point in the United States. Both EU and US airlines are allowed to fly on to a further destination in another country after their initial stop. Because the EU is not treated as a single territory for the purposes of the agreement, this means in practice that US airlines can fly between two points in the EU as long as that flight is the continuation of a flight that started in the US. Airlines of the EU are also allowed to fly between the US and non-EU countries that are part of the European Common Aviation Area, like Switzerland. EU and US airlines can operate all-cargo flights under Seventh Freedom rights, meaning US airlines' all-cargo flights can be operated from one EU country to any other country and EU airlines' all-cargo flights can operate between the US and any other country. Norway and Iceland acceded to the Agreement from 2011 and their airlines enjoy the same rights as EU airlines.
Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) functions as the regulatory body for all aviation related activities in Bangladesh. It is the national aviation authority operating under the Ministry of Civil Aviation & Tourism. All nine operational airports are operated by the CAAB. A member of International Civil Aviation Organization, it has signed bilateral air transport agreement with 52 states. It is headquartered in Kurmitola, Dhaka.
A national aviation authority (NAA) or civil aviation authority is a government statutory authority in each country that maintains an aircraft register and oversees the approval and regulation of civil aviation.
Denmark–Switzerland relations refers to the current and historical relations between Denmark and Switzerland. Denmark has an embassy in Bern. Switzerland has an embassy in Copenhagen, but only offers consular services from the Nordic Regional Consular Centre in Stockholm. Diplomatic relations between Denmark and Switzerland were established in 1945.
The State Secretariat of Civil Aviation is an agency of the government of Cambodia in-charge of civil aviation including airports in the country. It is headquartered in the capital Phnom Penh. The SSCA oversees the operation of national airports and air traffic management system in Cambodia. In 2000, it granted lease to SAMART Corporation to operate and upgrade the country's air traffic control and air navigation system under a long-term concession. The Secretary of State in charge is Mao Havannall.
The Office for Transportation Security (OTS) is the single authority responsible for the security of the transportation systems of the Philippines, including Civil Aviation, Sea Transport and Maritime Infrastructure, Land Transportation, Rail System and Infrastructure.
Civil aviation in India, will be third-largest civil aviation market by 2020, traces its origin back to 1911, when the first commercial civil aviation flight took off from a polo ground in Allahabad carrying mail across the Yamuna river to Naini.
The DEN/ICE Agreements are a series of multilateral treaties that provide for the joint financing of air traffic control, communications, and meteorological services in Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands for civil aircraft crossing the North Atlantic Ocean above the 45th parallel north. The agreements were negotiated and are implemented within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations.