Beyond Open Skies

Increasingly, governments everywhere are backing away from their earlier
micromanagement of international aviation, allowing carriers to tap market
opportunities wherever they can be found and with far more ease and
responsiveness. Accordingly, the industry will inevitably generate new
paradigms of competitive market behaviour. This timely book presents the fresh
thinking needed on an appropriate legal and policy architecture to govern the
industry in the decades ahead. It continues the pursuit of the topic
considered in the author's earlier work In Search of Open Skies: the contours
of a legal regime that should govern international scheduled air passenger
(and relatedly, air cargo) transport.

Beyond Open Skies offers a systematic comparative analysis of the legal
and policy dimensions of airline deregulation by federal fiat in the United
States and by supranational collaboration in the European Union. The book
draws upon a variety of sources, including very recent developments in U.S.
and EC international aviation law, policy, and diplomacy, to propose a genuine
multilateral air transport system. It examines the potential of the 'open
skies' initiative, in the aftermath of the new U.S./EC air transport
agreement, to inspire a genuine globalization of the world's air transport
industry in such crucial aspects as the following:

;

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cabotage;

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ownership and citizenship requirements;

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route selection;

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airline identity;

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capacity;

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pricing regimes;

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competition and public aid;

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regulatory harmonization;

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labor laws;

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provisions for charter and/or cargo transportation;

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fair operation of and access to computer reservations systems;

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authorization of code-sharing arrangements;

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alliances and antitrust immunity;

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and dispute resolution.

A very special feature of the book is its wealth of hard-to-find but vital
scholarship and source material, never before collected so conveniently in one
place, furnishing a rich and satisfying context that will enable readers to
understand better the forces at work during these momentous realignments among
carriers, regulators, and markets.

Recognizing that the current global air transport regulatory system is
inadequate to the commercial demands of the modern industry, the author shows
clearly that the imperatives for its reform transcend domestic debates about
incremental public intervention in the business of providing air transport.
The book's in-depth analysis of how the law and policy of U.S. and EC airline
deregulation can be integrated into the framework for a second-stage U.S./EC
air transport agreement builds upon the efforts of government officials,
industry stakeholders, and academic commentators who have encouraged a
progressive liberalization of air transport. Beyond Open Skies is sure to take
its place as the most comprehensive and valuable reference that exists on the
complex diplomacy currently defining the future of international aviation.