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.

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.

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).

India signs replacement air services agreement with Brazil

On 8 March 2011 the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation released details of a a new air services agreement that the Minister of Civil Aviation had signed with the visiting Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

There is a flexible route schedule and third-country code sharing is permitted but passenger capacity is limited to 21 operations per week.

EU concludes comprehensive air transport agreement with Brazil

On 18 March 2011 the European Commission announced that the European Union and Brazil have negotiated a comprehensive air transport services agreement.

Brazil concludes "open skies" agreement with the USA

On 6 December 2010 the United States Department of State announced that on 3 December 2010 the United States had initialled an "open skies" Air Transport Agreement with Brazil.

Singapore concludes "open skies" agreements with Barbados, Brazil, Jamaica and Rwanda

On 19 July 2010 the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) announced that Singapore had concluded "open skies" agreement with Barbados, Brazil, Jamaica and Rwanda at ICAN 2010.

Air services arrangements between Fiji and Singapore were also modified to create new opportunities.

Brazil opens access for airlines from the Gulf region

A 13 July 2010 report in Xinhua reports on the bilateral air services arrangements concluded by Brazil with 12 countries at the ICAO Air Services Negotiation Conference in Jamaica.

Notable new arrangements include those with countries in the Middle East. The fast growing airlines from the Gulf region in particular stand to benefit from the sixth freedom opportunities that this will create for carriage between Brazil and East Asia.

European Commission seeking to negotiate air services agreement with Brazil

On 6 May 2010 the European Commission announced that it is seeking a mandate from its member states to negotiate new, comprehensive air services arrangements with Brazil. This follows completion of an economic study by booz&co. quantifying the benefits.

Brazil is one of the major countries that has not negotiated an "open skies" agreement with the United States.

Outside of its immediate neighborhood, the European Commission has negotiated new air services arrangements with Canada and the United States, and has negotiations underway with Australia and New Zealand.

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.

Australia negotiates expanded air services arrangements with Brazil

On 23 July 2008 in a media release the Australian Minister for Transport announced that new air services arrangements had been negotiated by Australia with Brazil. Capacity limits have been increased and most route restrictions removed.

Brazil and the United States agree to air capacity and routes expansion

In a statement dated 26 June 2008 the US Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, has announced an expansion of the air services arrangements between Brazil and the United States of America. Allowable airline capacity is increased by just under 50%, five new destinations are made available in Brazil for US airlines and some third-country code sharing is permitted. Some further detail is given in a media note issued on 27 June 2008 by the US State Department.

Brazil is one of an increasingly small number of major markets that the USA has not been able to gain agreement to "open skies" arrangements. Other notable ones are Japan and China.

Brazilian interest in a regional approach to international air services arrangements?

On 17 April 2007 the head of the ANAC, Milton Zuanazzi, was reported (in Portuguese) to have been expressing an interest in the possibility of moving from a bilateral to a regional approach within South America for the economic regulation of international air services (O Globo article in Portuguese).