Air Service Agreement Liberalisation and Airline Alliances

This report examines key elements of bilateral air service agreements and recent trends towards liberalisation. It explores the linkages between air service agreements and international airline alliances. The report discusses issues related to antitrust reviews of proposed alliances and analyses the impact of liberalised air service agreements and alliances on competition and economic welfare.

While liberalised or open-skies agreements generally do not include stipulations for authorising airline alliances, their provisions usually change market conditions sufficiently to meet the requirements of competition authorities, facilitating authorisation and unlocking connectivity and efficiency benefits.  

This report is part of the International Transport Forum’s Country-Specific Policy Analysis (CSPA) series. These are topical studies on specific transport policy issues of concern to a country carried out by ITF on request.