Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts

17 November 2011

Canada signs expanded air agreement with Japan

On 1 October 2011 the Canadian Ministers of International Trade and Transport announced that Canada had negotiated new air services arrangements with Japan (see previous post).

18 September 2011

Japan negotiating "open skies" agreement with Canada

CAPA reported that Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MILT) announced on 9 September 2011 that it would be negotiating an open skies agreement with Canada commencing on 13-14 September 2011 in Vancouver.

MILT noted that this would be only the second such agreement outside of East Asia, the first having been with the United States (see previous post).

13 August 2011

Canada liberalises air services arrangements with Mexico

On 12 August 2011 the Canadian government announced that it has expanded its air transport agreement with Mexico.

The key feature of the new arrangements is the removal of capacity limits on direct (3rd/4th freedom) flights between the two countries.

Tariffs regulation provisions have also been liberalised, and the safety and security articles updates.

11 August 2011

Brazil signs new air transport agreement with Canada

The Canadian Prime Minister's Office has announced from Brasilia that on 8 August 2011 Canada signed a new Air Transport Agreement with Brazil.

The new arrangements include provision for third-country code-sharing.

They have been welcomed by Air Canada and WestJet.

07 April 2011

Brazil relaxes air services restrictions with Canada, Mexico and Russia

On 29 March 2011 Reuters reported that Brazil had agreed to relax restrictions in its air services arrangements with separately Canada (restrictions on capacity removed), Mexico (restrictions on capacity removed except at Sao Paulo and Mexico City) and Russia (to 14 flights per week up from three).

30 October 2010

Canada initials an air services agreement with Qatar

On 28 October 2010 the Qatar News Agency announced that, after three days of negotiations in Doha, Canada and Qatar have initialled an air services agreement that will allow Qatar Airways to operate three passenger flights and three cargo flights per week to Canada.

24 October 2010

Jamaica signs open skies agreement with Canada

On 20 October 2010 the Jamaican Prime Minister's office announced that Jamaica had signed a new "open skies" agreement with Canada.

Canada updates air transport agreement with Switzerland

On 22 October 2010 the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, announced that Canada had negotiated an updated, more open air transport agreement with Switzerland. The Prime Minister's Office announced more details.

Further coverage of the UAE v Canada aeropolitical dispute

What is looking like becoming a classic standoff (see previous post) has been receiving further media coverage. The following items are just a sample:

11 October 2010
Gulf News from Reuters

12 October 2010
The Montreal Gazette - note the reference to Australia and New Zealand
The Globe and Mail - editorial

13 October 2010

14 October 2010
The Globe and Mail - suggests there were differing views in the Canadian Cabinet

18 October 2010

20 October 2010

21 October 2010

22 October 2010
National Post NEW - comment from Canadian Transport Minister Chuck Strahl

On 16 October 2010 the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation published a background article.

The 2001 Canada-United Arab Emirates air transport agreement (ATA) itself is also available online. I found it unusual in that the capacity limits are explicitly included in the Route Schedule at the end of the ATA. The capacity principles are not unusual and are clearly spelled out in Article XI. What I have not seen in any of the coverage are the actual true origin/destination (TOD) passengers numbers between Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

10 October 2010

Aeropolitical 'hard ball' directed at Canada by the UAE

Reports in the Globe and Mail (8 October 2010), the Vancouver Sun (9 October 2010) and on Bloomberg (10 October 2010) point to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) venting its frustration at Canada's refusal to grant increased access to Emirates and Etihad (see previous post). This has taken the form of kicking the Canadian military out of the UAE which the Canadians have been using for logistics support for operations in Afghanistan.

I am left wondering whether there is a real risk of Canada giving notice of termination of its air services arrangements with the UAE. Such action would potentially include removing the right for UAE's airlines to overfly Canadian territory on non-stop services between Dubai and San Francisco/Los Angeles, for example, because Canada is no longer a party to the International Air Services Transit Agreement - Canada withdrew in 1988. (New Zealand has only ever terminated an air services relationship once, with Canada in the 1960s.)

Given that the origin of the military operations in Afghanistan was the horrendous 9/11 attacks in the USA using civil aviation, the actions of the UAE are not a good look.

29 June 2010

Canada concludes new air transport arrangements with Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Morocco and Tunisia

In recent months Canada has announced new air services arrangements with:
  • El Salvador (29 April 2010) - "open skies-type ..."
  • Ethiopia (1 March 2010) - first agreement
  • Tunisia (1 March 2010) - first agreement
  • Morocco (9 February 2010) - expanded agreement
  • Cuba (7 February 2010) - expanded agreement

11 October 2009

Canada reaches "Blue Sky" agreement with South Korea

On 15 July 2009 the Canadian Government announced that it had negotiated a "Blue Sky" air transport agreement with the Republic of Korea.

20 September 2009

Classic aeropolitics from the Australian archives

In the late 1970s Australia, with its International Civil Aviation Policy (ICAP), tried to reduce the share of the Australia-Europe market being taken by sixth freedom carrier Singapore Airlines by declining to allow it to match the cheapest tariffs for air travel on the route. The response was a heated dispute between Australia and ASEAN.

The National Archives of Australia has released UPDATED a key 1978 Australian Cabinet paper from that time. It provides a classic case study in aeropolitics.

The 3 March 1979 issue of Flight International carried a report of what happened. Related documents from ASEAN, such as a record UPDATED of a special meeting of Economics Ministers held on 22 February 1979 held in response to ICAP, a press release UPDATED following that meeting which alludes to "retaliatory measures", and a joint press release UPDATED on a ministerial-level meeting held between ASEAN and Australia on 20-21 March 1979, are also now available on the web.

Today Australia still takes what some might describe as a protectionist approach to international air services having very few "open skies" agreements and declining to grant fifth freedom access for Singaporean and Canadian airlines to the Australia-Mainland USA market while V Australia establishes itself.

18 August 2009

McGill IASL holds Workshop and Conference in Abu Dhabi

The McGill Institute of Air and Space Law (IASL) from Montreal has posted many of the presentations from a Workshop and Conference on Air Transport, Air & Space Law and Regulation that it held in Abu Dhabi on 12-16 April 2009.

From what one can tell from the inevitable .ppt slides, the basics seem to be well covered in the Workshop with, for example, the point being made that the US "open skies" model air services agreement lacks some features such as seventh freedom passenger rights and cabotage so it cannot really be described as totally open.

An interesting presentation from the Conference is that by Alan Khee-Jin Tan from the National University of Singapore on the proposed South East Asian Single Aviation Market.

13 August 2009

Canada concludes "Blue Sky" air transport agreement with South Africa

On 5 August 2009 the Canadian Minister of Transport, John Baird, and Minister of International Trade, Stockwell Day, announced the conclusion of a "Blue Sky" air transport agreement between Canada and South Africa.

Air Canada and South African Airways are both members of the Star Alliance.

The ministerial statement also outlines the progress Canada has made in its air services agreement negotiations since January 2006 (see previous post).

26 July 2009

Emirates Airline accuses Transport Canada

On 25 July 2009 the Toronto Star carried a report about the views Transport Canada has about Emirates Airline and the Emirates response which states that the department is making "slanderous" allegations. This story is being discussed in an aviation forum on Airliners.net. On 4 June 2009 the Financial Post reported Emirates CEO Tim Clark as saying the the Canadian government's approach was "ludicrous" and "protectionism of the worst kind." The Star carried an earlier report about lobbying by Emirates on 28 February 2009.

My read of the situation is that my Canadian counterparts are grappling with one of the more fundamental aeropolitical dilemmas of the last decade - how should governments (it is governments that exchange the air rights on a reciprocal basis) respond the spectacular rise of airlines from the Gulf region? They are not alone.

The home countries of the Gulf carriers are putting together an impressive number of air services arrangements that the carriers can utilise, taking advantage of their geographic location between Europe, Asia and Africa, to exploit the sixth freedom opportunities that as a consequence become available.

Many of these Gulf carriers seem intent on gaining global market share at the expense of profitability, although financial information is simply not disclosed by airlines such as Qatar Airways and Etihad. Not having to pay tax and enjoying some of the cheapest landing fees in the world at their home airports no doubt helps, as does the fact that reciprocal rights for other airlines to serve the Gulf region are often of limited value.

As a consequence the Gulf carriers and their home airports now play a much larger role in their respective economies than is typically the case of international airlines in other countries.

Emirates currently operates 28 wide-body flights into New Zealand every week (see previous post).

22 July 2009

Canada signs "Blue Sky" agreement with New Zealand

On 21 July 2009 at an APEC trade ministers' meeting in Singapore a new "blue sky" air transport agreement was signed by Hon Tim Grosser for New Zealand and Hon Stockwell Day for Canada. Both the Canadian and New Zealand governments have released media statements announcing the signing (see also previous post).

The new treaty removes capacity and capacity restrictions, and opens up fifth freedom opportunities for the airlines of both countries. It also includes an exchange of seventh freedom opportunities for freighter services.

I led the New Zealand delegation at the negotiations.

31 May 2009

Canada concludes new air transport agreement with Turkey

On 20 March 2009 the Canadian Minister of Transport, John Baird, announced the conclusion of the first air transport agreement between Canada and Turkey.

10 May 2009

EU air transport agreements with Canada and the United States compared

On 6 May 2009 the European Commission released a media Q&A statement that includes a summary of the differences between the air services arrangements it has negotiated separately with Canada (see previous post) and the United States (see previous post).

The statement also outlines the new Air Safety Agreement between Canada and the European Union.

26 April 2009

ICAO Diplomatic Conference looking to replace Rome Convention 1952

A diplomatic conference being held at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal from 20 April to 2 May 2009 is examining the legal issue of compensation caused by aircraft to third parties from acts of unlawful interference or from general risks.

The two draft conventions being considered are intended to replace the Rome Convention 1952 and the Montreal Protocol 1978. Information on parties to these treaties is available from ICAO here. They have not been that widely adopted, with the main treaty having 49 parties and the protocol only 12 parties.

Neither Australia nor New Zealand are parties to the Rome Convention. In New Zealand this area of law is covered by an accident compensation scheme and s.97 of the Civil Aviation Act. In Australia the relevant law is the Damage by Aircraft Act 1999. Australia and Canada were parties to the Rome Convention but withdrew.