EU-India aviation deal legalizes 26 bilateral agreements

Marseille, France: The civil-aviation agreement signed by India and the European Union ahead of their summit Monday legalizes 26 bilateral agreements on air transport India has with individual EU member states.
Since 1944, civilian air traffic between different countries has been governed by bilateral Air Services Agreements (ASAs) which set out how, when and how often each country's national airlines can enter the other's territory.
Over the last decade, however, the EU has created an Open Skies area across its territory - meaning that any EU airline can operate flights from any EU member state to any destination in the world.
In November 2002, the European Court ruled that bilateral ASAs, which only deal with the airlines headquartered in a EU state, were illegal because they discriminated against airlines operating out of the same state but headquartered in a different EU country.
The EU's solution was to create so-called horizontal agreements on behalf of the bloc. Those agreements effectively amend all existing ASAs with a given country to say that the EU states and the third country agree to treat all EU airlines equally.
Officials in Brussels say that such agreements are acceptable in the European Court, and therefore do not run the risk of a legal challenge based on the 2002 ruling.
The agreements do not force either side to open up new routes or increase traffic. That is to remain an issue for negotiation between each individual EU state and the third country in question.
29/09/08 Monsters and Critics.com

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Sep 2008, Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2008, New Sep 2008