Freedoms of the air

Freedoms of the air

1) General term referring to the basic concept on which bilateral and multilateral agreements on aviation between states are agreed; namely allowing the civil aircraft of foreign states to use each other’s airspace either freely or with specified restriction. Specified in the International Air Transport Agreement made under the 1944 Chicago Conference, ‘five freedoms’ were established, namely:

1. The right to fly over the air space of any contracting state without landing.

2. The right to make a technical landing (eg for refuelling) in the territory of any contracting state.

3. The right to set down traffic in the territory of any contracting state, providing it originated in one’s own country.

4. The right to pick up traffic in the territory of any contracting state, providing it was destined for one’s own country.

5. The right to carry traffic between the territories of any two contracting states.

Source: David Lowe. The Dictionary of Transport and Logistics. Kogan Page, 2002. – P.100 (288 p.)