Countries, major cities, and airlines have all been involved in negotiating bilateral international air service agreements for more than sixty years. Market access, pricing, capacity, and other aspects of civil aviation have all been kept under heavy regulation and strict controls. About the only concern given consumers was the upward level of their willingness to spend. Open skies is a concept for bilateral agreements that is less than twenty years old and not yet in wide use. Open skies agreements let market forces determine access, pricing, and capacity while a regulatory focus is kept on performance and safety and other aspects. Consumers are finally being shown some concern beyond wallet capacity. General adoption of open sky agreements is not so much an expectation as it is an option for negotiators to consider and modify when facing political, economic, and market factors.

Let A represent the nation of airline origin. B will represent the country of bilateral agreement. C will represent a country of bilateral agreement with A or B or both.

What international air travel does have now are the seven air freedoms. One and two deal with (A&B) transiting air space without landing and landing to refuel and service but without implaning or deplaning revenue bearing passengers or cargo. Three and four deal with the exchange when dropping off revenue bearing pax and cargo or picking up revenue bearing pax and cargo in each country (A&B). Five and six are extensions of three and four. They allow for deplaning and implaning revenue bearing pax and cargo from country A in Country B for carriage on to Country C. A common requirement is that the flight must originate in country A or that country A be a stop between country B and country C. These freedoms allow for routes: A to B, B to A, A to C thru B, C to A thru B, B to C, C to B. If you travel to Europe from the United States, this might help explain why so many itineraries include a stop in Canada, Iceland, Netherlands, or United Kingdom. The seventh air freedom allows an airline to serve between B and C without a stop in A. Seven is relatively rare compared to Three thru Six.

For shoppers, air freedoms five and six are the most beneficial. In particular, it is the individual flight segments that yield the most benefit. Where freedom five allows A to B to C, the segment A to B is often provided at the lowest published airfare and quite often set at a reduced price. Where freedom six allows C to A thru B, the segment C to B is often set at a low price. And the remaining flight segments allowed by five and six are also worth a look. They are nearly as likely to be found at a reduced price as are the segments first mentioned.

If you are not already familiar with the air freedom itineraries of a favored airline, you can get a good start by examining airline timetables either online or offline. For example, if you shop for a flight from Canada to Kenya, the timetables might display many itineraries that stop in London (if a UK carrier) or Paris (if a La France carrier) or Frankfurt ( if a Deutschland carrier) or Zurich (if a Die Schweiz carrier) etc. From then on, whenever you want to fly from Canada to London, Paris, Zurich, or Frankfurt; it might be wise to shop those respective airlines first. And for that flight to Kenya; check the pricing from Canada to one of the air freedom stops on one ticket and then the price of a second ticket from there to Kenya. Compare the total cost of both tickets to the total cost of one Canada to Kenya ticket. Sometimes the two ticket price will be appreciably less than the one ticket price. Sometimes, you can give yourself a discount when no other discount is available.

Play with this when you have time and keep notes. With a world of travelers and about two hundred countries, freedoms five and six yield thousands of A to B, B to C, C to B, B to A flight segment and pricing possibilities. Then a few thousand more avail for the A to B combined with B to C and vice versa two ticket strategy. Much of the savings are in the ten to thirty percent off published fares but now and then you will stumble across a two ticket purchase that is half the cost of one ticket. Once you become aware of the flight segments available, using just one Internet booking engine to apply the air freedom one segment or the two segment two ticket strategy is often all you need. Chances can be enhanced by shopping several booking engines to locate and take advantage of privately held airfare. But that is another story and another shopping tip.

via Creative Reporter,
Air Travel Center
over the wires at:
http://airtravelcenter.com/
over the air at:
http://airtravelcenter.ch/