Open skies and its recent impact on the Asia-Pacific region

by Hu, Hong

The primary intention of this thesis is to examine open skies policy and its farreaching impact on the Asia-Pacific region. in order to achieve this, we will describe the historic evolution of economic regulation in civil air transport, which laid the foudation for an open skies regime. Moreover, the scope of an open skies regime on a globai scale is addressed. Then, a detailed study of the essential elements of bilateral open skies agreements is undertaken. AAerwards, an analysis of the current economic air transport regulation in Asia- Pacific is conducted. With the energence of the open skies trend, most Asia-Pacific nations began to liberalize their air transport industries. Yet, bilateral agreements remain the primary means to attain this goal. More necessarily, several Asia-Pacific coutries' air transport policies will be comprehensively examined. This examination includes Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia. Finally, a perspective for liberalization via a hybrid of bilateral and sub-regional open skies arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region is presented. L'intention première de cette thèse est d'analyser la politique Ciel Ouvert et ses répercussions de grande portée sur la zone Asie-Pacifique. C'est dans ce but que nous décrirons I'évolution historique de la réglementation économique dans le domaine de l'avation civile, qui a servi de base au régime Ciel Ouvert. De plus, après une étude de la portée du régime à l'échelle mondiale, nous analyserons en détails les éléments qui caractérisent les accords bilatéraux de ciel ouvert. Nous analyserons ensuite la réglementation des transports aériens couramment en vigueur dans la zone Asie-Pacifique. Avec l'implantation d'une politique de ciel ouvert, la plupart des nations de la zone Asie-Pacifique ont commencé a libéraliser leur industrie aéroautique. Les accords biiatéraux y demeurent pourtant le moyen le plus courant d'atteindre ce but. Nous examinerons nécessairement en détails la politique aéronautique de plusieurs pays de la zone Asie-Pacifique. Cet examen s'étendra au Japon, a la Chine, a Singapour, à Taiwan, à la Corée du Sud,aux Philippines et it l'Australie. Enfin, un projet de libéralisation basé sur un système hybride d'accords bilatéraux et sub-régionaux dam la zone Asie-Pacifique sera proposé. 1would like to express, fint and foremost, my thanks to Prof.Dr. Michael Milde, Director, Institute of Air and Space Law, for his much appreciated and invaluable guidance, support and encouragement in the supervision of this thesis. My respect for hun has inspired me to do my best. My truly heartfelt gratitude extends to my parents for their support during my stay in Montreal. My husband, Dr. Hewei Li, deserves profouad appreciation for providing his co~fidence in my abilities h m and family on his shoulders throughout this work. the start and undertaking both respoasibilities of work My appreciation also goes to Mr. Yuanzheng Wang, Econornic Policy Section, ICA0 and Mr. David B. Modesitt, Office of the Secretary, the US. Department of Transponation for their generous and constant assistance in the course of drafting this thesis. Special mention shouid be made of the assistance offered by Mr. Guoli Lee for his helpful comments on the draft of the thesis and Melissa bock for the wonderfil correction of various drafts of this work. Finally, 1 wish to acknowledge the foilowing petsons who contnbuted their the to the providing with the document and latest information: Mr. David Knudson, FAA Representativeof Singapore Mr. Zemin Qian, the permanent Representative,Chinese Delegation, ICAO Mr. lim Manning,the Representative of Australia on the Council, ICAO Prof. Masao Sekiguc hi, Komisawa University, Japan Ms, Catherine Zuzak, National University of Singapore Ms. Megasari Widyaty, Bureau of Econornic Cooperation, ASEAN