Open Skies Agreement

This article describes civil aviation agreements regarding overflights over foreign states. For military flights over foreign states, see the Open Skies Treaty .

EU-US Open Skies Agreement ( German  , open / free air spaces' ) in the aviation industry are international agreements for mutual market-based liberalization of the respective civil aviation sector  - represented by civilian airlines  - between the parties. Liberalized landing rights, route rights, cartel law agreements, property regulations, etc. are part of these civil contracts. The contracting parties are mostly sovereign states or, as in the case of the EU , supranational institutions . These agreements primarily have a decisive impact on private-sector or state airlines in the respective countries and the associated environment ( passengers , airport operators , tour operators, etc.). But the economic, political and cultural aspects resulting from this should not be neglected. There are numerous open skies agreements between individual or multiple countries around the world. The most important agreement is the air transport agreement between the EU and the United States ( English EU-US Open Skies Agreement ).

Open Skies Agreement between the EU and the USA

Since the beginning of the 1990s at the latest, the EU has been in negotiations with the USA about “unhindered access to the respective airspace” in the civil sector. In this context, there were individual agreements between the USA and European countries. However, these different bilateral agreements with individual EU members represented a violation of general EU law after a CJEU ruling in 2002. According to this, the Bermuda II Agreement agreed between the USA and Great Britain in 1977 and modified in 1995 is - after the, other provisions, only four airlines, namely British Airways , Virgin Atlantic , American Airlines and United Airlines are allowed to fly from London's Heathrow Airport to the USA and back - not compatible with EU law. A new regulation in favor of a uniform contract between the USA and all EU member states was therefore imperative.

aims

Airlines from EU countries should therefore be allowed to fly to all US airports without restrictions and from there to third countries. For example, to date KLM has not been able to offer a connection Amsterdam - Los Angeles with a subsequent flight to Mexico City . Associated with this is the permission for foreign airlines to operate domestic routes abroad, so-called 'point-to-point flying'. For example, US law has so far not allowed Lufthansa to offer the San Francisco - New York route without this route being part of a flight connection to Germany or the EU. The US legislature also set (in the 2003 modified version of the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938) the upper limit of voting shares owned by foreign investors in US airlines at 25% of the total shareholders , while the EU in negotiations set a 49% - Margin aspired and is still trying to achieve - as was the case in the Air Commerce Act of 1926 in the USA . In addition, according to US law, the chairman and at least two-thirds of the board of directors of a US airline must consist of US citizens . On the other hand, US airlines in the EU were allowed to offer onward flights to third countries and US investors were allowed to take a stake in European airlines with up to 49% of the company shares. There could be no question of “competition at eye level” between the countries of the EU and the USA. Antitrust issues and duty-free provisions were also discussed in the negotiations.

Concerns in the US

The adherence to existing laws was justified by the US side, among other things, with the fact that civilian aircraft in the US can be used by the armed forces of the United States for troop transport through the Civil Reserve Air Fleet provision and this fact applies to foreign ownership Could cause problems. In addition, the so-called Fly America Act existed for air travel paid for by US government funds , according to which only US-owned airlines could be chosen as travel means. Other US fears were that US jobs could be lost, that profits would be transferred abroad, that safety standards would fall or that only profitable routes could be served. With regard to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , people were and still are very skeptical about the threat of foreign ownership by US airlines. The takeover of the British P&O shipping company in 2006, and with it the ownership and management of 22 American seaports , including New York City , New Jersey , Philadelphia , Baltimore , New Orleans and Miami , by DP World , an Emirati investment company owned by Government of Dubai , unleashed a storm of protest in the US. Finally, DP World was, in spite of support from the Bush administration , the US Congress for fear of Arab ownership and for the sake of national security to resell the seaports at Ports America, Inc. , an AIG - daughter forced. In the US, the Democratic Party , some of the US airlines and the unions involved are the fiercest opponents of an open-skies agreement. However, liberalization is advocated e.g. B. for a long time from United Airlines , which cooperates very closely with Lufthansa via the Star Alliance network, and more and more US airlines who are hoping for economic advantages. One of the concerns of the USA is to relax the ban on night flights in the EU, since large American courier airlines such as FedEx or UPS are dependent on night flights . In addition, the US is a thorn in the side that EU environment ministers want to include aviation in EU emissions trading from 2012 , according to which airlines that take off from or land in the EU have to buy pollution certificates - which is also the case for American airlines that go to Flying Europe would apply.

Aspirations of the EU

On the EU side - for US airlines, of course, the corresponding advantages apply reciprocally in the EU area, if they were not even valid before the agreement - it was not the disadvantages that were liberalized during the negotiations but rather the improvements resulting for the consumer through more competition Seen markets. The main goals were and are to increase foreign holdings in US airlines, unrestricted access for EU airlines to destinations in the USA and the opening of domestic flight operations in the USA to EU airlines.

Negotiations for an open skies contract from 2005 (phase 1)

In June 2004, the first negotiations for a uniform contract were declared to have failed for the time being, because the USA refused to grant airlines from EU member states extended access to the civil US aviation market. In technical jargon, the single aviation market of a third country, which is approved for foreigners , is called ' cabotage '. Negotiations resumed after 2004, however, and in November 2005 the parties were able to at least agree on proposals, although no agreements were reached. The Bush administration had campaigned for an increase in the permitted proportion of foreign holdings in US airlines - one of the negotiating points - but failed with its push at Congress and the protectionist resistance of the democratic opposition . In February 2007 new negotiations took place between the EU Commission and the US Department of Transportation , led by EU Commissioner for Transportation Jacques Barrot and US Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters . On February 22, 2007, the EU Commission unanimously approved the agreement between the EU and the USA from the beginning of March in a vote by the 27 EU transport ministers .

Contract from 2007/2008

With the Open Skies Agreement between the EU and the US, which came into force on March 30, 2008, EU airlines are allowed to “fly to any city in the US from any airport in the EU”, but they will become domestic routes may not (yet) operate in the USA. In addition, it was said at the time, the "number of air passengers on the transatlantic routes should increase by 26 million in the next few years" and competition will increase considerably. In retrospect, however, neither the number of passengers nor the number of transatlantic flights has increased significantly. As a result of the global financial and economic crisis , the transatlantic capacities were even scaled back. Originally had the agreement at the end of October 2007 to be effective, but the British government , which had initially threatened with a vote of 27 EU transport ministers on 27 March 2007 in Brussels to protect to vote against the pact, had the airport Heathrow to a delay is requested. As part of the annual EU-USA summit, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel , as current EU Council President , the EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the US President George W. Bush signed the binding agreement on April 30th 2007 in Washington, DC . With the contract, the US-EU Joint Committee consisting of representatives from the USA (Department of State, Department of Transportation, FAA, Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Commerce, industry representatives, environmental protection representatives) and the EU (EU Commission , European External Action Service, representatives of the Member States, from 2011 representatives of Iceland and Norway, industry representatives) with regard to further negotiations.

Further negotiations from 2008 (phase 2)

In the so-called 'second round' (phase 2) of the negotiations, which began in mid-2008, additional agreements, for example with regard to harmonized safety regulations and climate protection , should be reached first by 2009 and then by the end of 2010 . The main goal of the Europeans, to increase the permitted participation of foreigners in US airlines, has not yet been achieved. The United States' Assistant Secretary for Transportation, John Byerly, announced in December 2008 that there will be no easing "any time soon." The Americans, on the other hand, achieved significant success with unrestricted access to Heathrow Airport. In the USA, as part of the agreement, Virgin America , an offshoot of the British Virgin Atlantic airline , started operations in San Francisco in August 2007 as an American domestic airline. Its founder, Richard Branson , a British citizen , may not hold more than 25% of the shares. The approval for Virgin America was highly controversial in the USA. Meanwhile, the EU, and especially the UK , repeatedly threatened the US to suspend the open skies agreement if the US did not open its domestic air market to EU airlines by 2010 ( cabotage ). US negotiator Byerly, however, remarked negatively at the end of 2009 that it was completely out of the question on the US side when it came to cabotage that they would “move even a millimeter” and described the European threats as counterproductive. The second round of talks took place in May and September 2008. In December 2008, they met under the Aviation Forum on Liberalization and Labor (air Fahrts Forum on Liberalization and Labor) in Washington, DC in May 2009 passed the US House of Representatives , the bill for re-authorization of the US aviation authority FAA ( Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2009 ), which secures US ownership of American airlines and provides, among other things, that maintenance work on US airlines abroad (e.g. by Lufthansa Technik in Frankfurt ) should be checked by the FAA . Both are seen as a violation of the Open Skies Agreement and could, if the US Senate actually pass the law in early 2010, even lead to the negotiations being broken off. At the end of June 2009, another meeting took place in Brussels as part of the second EU-US Aviation Forum on Liberalization and Labor . It was only agreed to conclude the negotiations by the end of 2010 and adjourned to a meeting in Washington DC in October 2009. In Washington, however, they agreed to pick up the pace and complete the second phase by the end of 2009, but this did not succeed . The EU said that neither the FAA Authorization Act nor the domestic flight regulations in the USA could lead to an interruption of the negotiations, although both, which the USA has so far refused, continued to advance points at a meeting in Brussels on November 9th have been. The rounds of negotiations were concluded on March 25, 2010, and the Second Stage Agreement was signed in Luxembourg on June 24, 2010, after a total of eight negotiating meetings since the 2007 agreement. This confirms the achievements of the 2007 contract. The addendum contains definitions regarding the high labor standards in the aviation industry on both sides of the Atlantic and emphasizes the mutual cooperation in relation to environmental protection. Furthermore, the USA achieved protection for US airlines from night flight bans in the EU.

Contract addition: Iceland and Norway 2011

Iceland and Norway were surprisingly included in the treaty as non- EU members on June 21, 2011, which then applied to the USA and 29 European nations.

Further negotiations from 2011

Since June 2011 there have been further negotiation meetings of the US-EU Joint Committee :

• June 22, 2011 in Oslo:
  The USA reiterated their opposition to the inclusion of US airlines in the EU emissions trading scheme . With regard to the one-stop security concept (security check only at the first airport, no further checks for transfers or onward flights at other airports), the EU demanded that not only passengers but also all staff at US airports have to go through security checks, which has so far been the case is not the case. Other topics included airline ownership and security aspects relating to freight and postage.
• December 8, 2011 in Washington, DC:
  The US refused to include US airlines in the EU emissions trading scheme. Noise and environmental protection, safety aspects , ownership of airlines, the allocation of land slots and Chapter 11 as a possible subsidy measure were other topics of the meeting.
• May 30, 2012 in Rome:
  The parties agreed on the mutual acceptance of the respective security procedures with regard to air freight traffic. Topics were US passport control points in countries in the Gulf States for travelers to the USA. The United States rejected negotiations to ease ownership of US airlines and the issue of cabotage. Noise protection and the allocation of land lots were other topics.
• January 15, 2013 in Washington, DC:
  With the exception of two states, including Germany, all EU member states had ratified the treaty of 2008 in their own country by this time. A procedure for the early lifting of the restriction on liquids in the hand luggage of passengers was discussed. The US reiterated its opposition to changes to the rules governing ownership of US airlines. Immigration formalities at US airports and entry controls carried out by the USA in Arab countries (pre-clearance), the allocation of land lots, noise protection and EU emissions trading were other topics.
• June 5, 2013 in Reykjavík:
  Croatia was presented as a new EU member state as a new contractual partner. The EU renewed its drive to change the rules governing ownership of US airlines (such as Delta Air Lines and its 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways ) and cabotage. The EU expressed concern about possible distortions of competition with regard to the so-called pre-clearance facilities of the US immigration authorities planned in Abu Dhabi from January 2014 (opened on January 26, 2014). Also worrying are plans by the US government to have the formalities for planned exit controls (fingerprint control of passengers, etc.) in the USA carried out by the respective airlines. Waiting times at US airports for passengers and crews, noise protection, liquids allowed in hand luggage and the use of crew members with Asian nationalities at low wages from Norwegian Long Haul A / S, which is registered in Ireland, on transatlantic flights were other topics.

More open skies contracts

• USA - Brunei / Singapore / Chile / New Zealand (May 2001)
• USA - People's Republic of China (July 2004)
• USA - India (January 2005)
• EU - Australia / New Zealand (June 2005)
• USA - United Arab Emirates (April 2013)
• EU - Tunisia (December 2017)

See also

• Freedoms of the air

literature

• R. Doganis: The airline business in the 21st century. Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0-415-20882-3 , ISBN 0-415-20883-1 .
• Rüdiger Sterzenbach, Roland Conrady, Frank Fichert: Air traffic - business instruction and manual. 4th edition. Oldenbourg Verlag, Oldenbourg 2009. ISBN 3-486-58537-1
• Brian F. Havel: Beyond open skies - a new regime for international aviation. Wolters Kluwer Law, Alphen aan den Rijn 2009, ISBN 978-90-411-2389-3 .

Web links

• Contract text of the EU-USA civil aviation agreement on eur-lex.europa.eu: Air transport agreement - Annexes - Declarations - Protocol
• Air Transport Agreement ( BGBl. 2014 II pp. 946, 947 )
• Information on the progress of negotiations on the civil aviation agreement from the EU Commission
• Information on the progress of negotiations on the civil aviation agreement from the US mission to the EU

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tagesspiegel: EU urges progress with the USA ( Memento of February 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) - Tagesspiegel of February 6, 2007 (via Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Innovation Report: EU Commission calls for the "Open Skies" agreement to be terminated (November 21, 2002)
3. ↑ BBC: Dubai firm sells US ports to AIG [ Dubai company sells US ports to AIG ] (December 11, 2006)
4. ↑ Port Authority of New York and New Jersey: Joint Statement by Port Authority on PNCT Ownership Agreement Joint statement by the port authority regarding the PNCT ownership agreement (February 16, 2006)
5. ↑ Logistics Today: (Eng.) AIG port terminals for sale ( AIG port terminals are for sale ) ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (October 1, 2008) 
6. ↑ Wall Street Journal: (Eng.) US, EU to Resume Open-Skies Talks [ USA, EU resume Open-Skies talks ] (October 7, 2009)
7. ↑ Die Welt: EU forces airlines to protect the climate (July 8, 2008)
8. ↑ Time: Heaven Liberated (March 30, 2008)
9. ↑ Dow Jones Newswires: Different consequences of Open Skies for EU airlines  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (March 22, 2007)  
10. ↑ Mittelbayerische.de: EU creates open airspace with the USA for the first time  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (March 22, 2007)  
11. ↑ Deutsche Welle: "EU and USA adopt economic agreement" (May 1, 2007)
12. ↑ US State Department: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs: John R. Byerly ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ ATW Daily News: (eng.) US negotiator Byerly stands firm on ownership, cabotage changes in near term [ US negotiator Byerly stays firm on ownership, cabotage for the near future ] (December 5, 2008)
14. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "Fortress Heathrow" (March 22, 2007)
15. ↑ Handelsblatt: "USA let Branson take off" ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (March 22, 2007)
16. ↑ BTN Online: US, EU Seeking To Step Up Open Skies Talks [USA, EU want to accelerate Open Skies talks] (January 14, 2010)
17. ↑ EU Commission (eng.): Aviation Forum on Liberalization and Labor ( Memento of the original dated December 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (December 3, 2007) 
18. ↑ EUObserver: "Open skies agreement endangered by US Congress" [ US Congress endangers Open Skies agreement ] (May 27, 2009)
19. ↑ EU Commission: "Joint Statement" ( joint final declaration for the Open Skies meeting on June 25-26, 2009 )  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 239 kB)  
20. ↑ aviationweek.com: Negotiators Step Up Open Skies Talks (Negotiators accelerate Open Skies talks )  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (October 12, 2009)  
21. ↑ state.gov: US-EU Sign “Second Stage” Air Transport Agreement ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (June 24, 2010) 
22. ^ State.gov: Ninth Meeting of the EU-US Joint Committee Record of Meeting of June 22, 2011 (June 22, 2011)
23. ↑ state.gov: Tenth Meeting of the US-EU Joint Committee Record of Meeting December 8, 2011 (December 8, 2011)
24. ^ State.gov: Eleventh Meeting of the US-EU Joint Committee Record of Meeting May 30, 2012 (May 30, 2012)
25. ↑ state.gov: Twelfth Meeting of the US-EU Joint Committee Record of Meeting January 15, 2013 (January 15, 2013)
26. ^ State.gov: Thirteenth Meeting of the US-EU Joint Committee Record of Meeting June 5, 2013 (June 5, 2013)