08 May 1997
(22 bilateral accords liberalize aviation regulation) (300) The conclusion of bilateral "open skies" aviation agreements between the United States and six Central American countries May 8 brings the number of such agreements to 22 -- the six in Central America plus twelve in Europe, three in Asia and one in the Middle East. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which regulates civil aviation in the United States, says that an open skies agreement consists of the following: -- Open entry on all routes. -- Unrestricted capacity and frequency on all routes. -- The right to operate between any point in the United States and any point in the corresponding country without restriction, including service to intermediate and beyond points, and the right to transfer passengers to an unlimited number of smaller aircraft at the international gateway. -- Flexibility in setting fares. -- Liberal charter arrangements. -- Liberal cargo arrangements. -- Right of carriers to convert earnings into hard currency and return those earnings to their homelands promptly and without restriction. -- Open code-sharing opportunities. (Code-sharing between airlines allows an agent of one airline to issue a passenger one ticket for a trip, even though some legs of the trip will be with other airlines.) -- The right of a carrier to perform its own ground handling in the other country. -- The right of carriers to freely enter into commercial transactions related to their flight operations. -- Commitment to nondiscriminatory operation of and access to computer reservation systems. The 22 open skies agreements are with, listed in chronological order from the first agreement: The Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, The Czech Republic, Germany, Jordan, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.