A Brief Genesis of the North Atlantic Air Transport

• Main Author: Grancay, Martin
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: L93 - Air Transportation; F5 - International Relations; National Security; and International Political Economy; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14095/; https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14095/1/MPRA_paper_14095.pdf

The aim of our paper is to analyze civil aviation relations between the United States of America and the European Union - constituting the most important intercontinental air transportation market in the world. Air transport between the EU and USA was traditionally regulated by bilateral Air Service Agreements of rather protectionist nature. The change came after Jimmy Carter had become the president of the USA and started pushing towards liberalization. After 1992, USA and some European states signed bilateral Open Skies treaties, representing an even higher level of liberalization than during Carter’s era. However, the European Court of Justice declared these treaties unlawful in 2002. This decision led to a general EU-US Open Skies Agreement signed in 2007. There have been ongoing negotiations on further liberalization; however their success is highly doubtful.