Japan considering "solidarity" tax on international air travel

On 28 September 2010 the Asahi Shimbun reported that the Japanese Government is considering introducing a 'solidarity' tax on international air transport.

Chile, France and South Korea already has such a tax in place with the money being used to fund UNITAID NEW.

LAN using MALIAT rights to code share on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong

On 17 May 2010 the Chilean airline, LAN started code-share services to Hong Kong (HKG) from Santiago (SCL) using the operations of its oneworld global alliance partner airline, Cathay Pacific (CX) for the sector to HKG. The services are via New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX) and Auckland (AKL).

LAN's code sharing beyond the United States and New Zealand to Hong Kong uses Chile's air rights under the MALIAT and separately Chile's air services arrangements with Hong Kong.

South America and East Asia are on opposite side of the globe so the great circle distances involved in the three air routings are not that different, although travel via AKL is shorter:

• SCL-JFK-HKG 21,193km
• SCL-LAX-HKG 20,647km
• SCL-AKL-HKG 18,829km

The calculations were made using Great Circle Mapper.

Review of airline competition law developments in 2009

Australian law firm Minter Ellison has published Airlines - 2009 world wide competition law review. In what promises to be a valuable resource if it becomes a regular publication, the Review outlines the various ways that competition law around the world cover the international airline industry.

It also points to issues with Chile's method of allocating limited international air rights between Chilean airlines.

Chile puts its air services arrangements on the web

For those who speak Spanish (for those who don't there are some documents that have translations into other languages), the Chilean Junta De Aeronautica Civil has now made scans of Chile's bilateral air services arrangements available online for download. Both the treaty texts and the related understandings seem to be available. Google Translate can also assist with rough translations.

IATA "Agenda for Freedom" web site

The Geneva and Montreal based International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents most of the worlds international airlines, has established a dedicated web site for its Agenda for Freedom initiative (see previous post).

The site already contains a useful resource of information that is described as best practice on air services liberalisation from the European Commission, Switzerland, the United States of America and Chile.

Bilateralism versus Multilateralism in Air Transport

I have been having a look at The Air Transport Review at the WTO: Bilateralism versus Multilateralism written by Cecilia Genevieve Decurtins as her thesis for a doctorate in international relations. She completed it at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva in 2007.

She uses negotiation theory to examine aspects of the first review carried out under the GATS Air Transport Services Annex held at the World Trade Organization in Geneva (see previous post). (The second review is currently underway.)

Decurtins highlights the positions taken by Australia, Chile, the European Union, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Japan and the United States, and examines the probable reasons why each country adopted the positions that it did.

As an active participant in the very small New Zealand delegation at the meetings concerned in Geneva, it is fascinating to see what an outsider made of them and the related papers. It is also an excellent example of how open the formal part of the WTO processes can be.

Decurtins has worked at IATA and knows her subject well.