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External relations

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External relations

 
The liberalisation process for aviation has resulted in substantial changes for the internal European market.

However, EU airlines still have less commercial freedom when flying to countries outside the EU, as traffic rights on these routes are governed by bilateral agreements between individual countries, often restricting the number of airlines on the routes concerned, the number of flights and the possible destinations.

To overcome these limitations, EU aims at extending its internal aviation policy beyond its borders.

First, any bilateral agreements should put all EU airlines on an equal footing for flights to countries outside the EU (“Community designation clause”).

Second, the EU is working to set-up a common aviation area with neighbouring countries in the Mediterranean and to the east.

Third, the EU has been and is still setting up open aviation areas with other key international partners, such as the US, Canada and Brazil.

As a recognized stakeholder, AIRE is actively involved with the consultative forums held during the negotiation phase towards aviation agreements and puts forward the views of its member airlines in each case.