New Zealand Government mandates air services negotiations in East Asia and South America

On 14 July 2011 the New Zealand Associate Minister of Transport, Nathan Guy, announced that New Zealand's air services negotiators had been issued with mandates for negotiations with up to 10 countries in East Asia and South America. China and Brazil were specifically named. These regions are seen as emerging markets with considerable growth potential. In addition, the prospect of Auckland (AKL) gaining a share of East Asia-South America traffic is referred to. The statement refers to the LAN-Cathay Pacific code share via Auckland (see previous post).

Auckland and Christchurch airports both made media statements welcoming the announcement.

On 15 July 2011 Flight Global (Will Horton) and Aviation Week (Adrian Schofield) covered the news. The latter noted that capacity restrictions applied under New Zealand's current air services agreements with China and Brazil.

A 21 July 2011 Air Transport Intelligence article by Will Horton notes the technology and alliance challenges Air New Zealand faces if it is to serve Brazil.

The Minister's media statement also announced the New Zealand had reached agreement with the Netherlands to remove restrictions on code sharing. This allows SkyTeam member, KLM, to code share to AKL via Guangzhou on the new China Southern operation (see previous post). KLM has been code sharing to New Zealand on Malaysia Airlines which is joining the oneworld alliance.

"Aerotropolis - The Way We'll Live Next" by John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay

I had expected that this book would be more of an academic work than what it is - largely one of business journalism - but it is well worth a read nonetheless.

Aerotropolis gives a good picture of the role that civil aviation is now playing in globalisation, and how airports have become central to modern economies and urban development.

Featured in the book are developments around:

• Incheon (ICN) - where a new city, Songdo, is being built
• Los Angeles (LAX) - where the airport had not been supported
• Dulles (IAD) - near Washington DC in a wealthy and growing part of Virginia
• Chicago (ORD) - where there were plans for an additional airport
• Memphis (MEM) and Louisville (SDF) - hubs for FedEx and UPS respectively
• Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) - hub for American Airlines
• Detroit (DTW) - second hub for Delta with links to Asia and looking to build a Detroit Region Aerotropolis
• Denver (DEN) - where a completely new airport was opened
• Amsterdam (AMS) - with its associated flower market
• Dubai (DXB), Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Doha (DOH) - with their competing global ambitions
• Bangkok (BKK) - where a new airport has been built on a swamp
• Hong Kong (HKG), Guangzhou (CAN) and Shenzhen (SZX) - vital to the success of manufacturing in the Pearl River Delta

For me, the book's coverage of developments in China was the most interesting, perhaps because it was the least familiar.

Memorable concepts from the book include:

• "Kasarda's Law of Connectivity: every technology meant to circumvent distances electronically ... will only stoke our desire to transverse [distance] ourselves."
• "Individual companies don't compete. Supply chains compete. Networks and systems compete."
• Marchetti's Constant

One piece of advice that is actually included late in the book. Use Google Earth while reading "Aerotropolis" to get an idea of the lie of the land around the airports being referred to.

Reviews of the book have appeared in:

• Kirkus Reviews 15 December 2010
• Bloomberg Businessweek 24 February 2011
• FT Magazine 25 February 2011
• Wall Street Journal 2 March 2011
• New York Times 4 March 2011
• The Independent 4 March 2011
• The Telegraph 13 March 2011
• The Guardian 19 March 2011
• Barnes and Noble Review 22 March 2011
• The Scotsman 27 March 2011
• The Enlightened Economist 28 April 2011
• London Review of Books 28 April 2011 
• History Books Review 27 May 2011
• Los Angeles Review of Books 30 May 2011

It is clear that civil aviation in general and the future that Kasarda outlines have their sceptics and this book is somewhat provocative.

An earlier 1 July 2006 article, Rise of the Aerotropolis, on the concept by Greg Lindsay appeared in Fast Company.

The Netherlands drops tax on air travel

On 26 March 2009 the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) and on 27 March 2009 the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and ACI Europe welcomed the decision by the Dutch government to abandon its tax on air travel that was introduced on 1 July 2008. AviationWatch commented on the background to the decision. The tax will cease to apply from 1 July 2009.

A 5 February 2008 post by Frans Vreede on Aviation Law Prof Blog briefly discussed some of the legal aspects. Key to concerns about the legality tax was the interpretation of Article 15 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention).

As reported by DutchNews.nl on 17 July 2008, the tax had survived court challenges. The Board of Airline Representatives in the Netherlands (BARIN) gives further details.

South Africa making progress implementing 2006 Airlift Strategy

A 23 June 2008 story in Business Day reports on South Africa's good progress in implementing its Airlift Strategy 2006 (see previous post). South Africa is reported to have recently negotiated new air services arrangements with the United Kingdom (a substantial capacity increase), Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Gambia and New Zealand. South Africa is also reported to be in negotiations with Australia, India and the Netherlands.

ECJ rules against the Netherlands-US air services agreement

Following an opinion dated 16 November 2006, in a judgement dated 24 April 2007 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled against the Netherlands concerning its bilateral air services arrangements with the United States (Case C-523/04). The case was brought by the European Commission.