The ASEAN multilateral agreement on air services: En route to open skies?

The ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations recently adopted a Multilateral Agreement on Air Services that seeks to liberalize market access and ownership and control requirements for air carriers in the region. The Agreement is a precursor to an eventual Single Aviation Market arrangement targeted for 2015. This article analyzes the key provisions of the Agreement and identifies the factors that will likely impact on the future SAM. In particular, there is uncertainty as to whether the SAM will go beyond third, fourth and fifth freedom relaxations to include important seventh freedom rights as well as more permissive ownership and control structures for air carriers. There are also lingering concerns over the loss of state sovereignty impacting on attempts to harmonize safety and technical standards, aviation security and competition policy.