ICAO Chicago Convention 1944

I would like to draw the attention of those who intent to be air hostess (cabin crew)), or even those in airlines, to be aware of the history of aviation. One of the areas of knowledge is regarding the regulatory bodies. No progress can be made without having a common understanding about the rulings. Equaly so in the aviation. We heard so many times, the term 5th freedom, what does it mean??. How did it start, read more from the passage below, complement from ICAO.

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The airline industry is different to most other forms of industry. Not only because of it has the international elements, but also because of the active governmental acyive participation. AS you may be aware, many of the countaries have their own national airlines or 'flag carriers' . These airlines are either government owned, or intended to be the prestige for a country.

These countaries often feel that they can only get a reliable services, only from their locally owned airlines. The country want a commitment of continuous uninterupted services eventhough it is unprofitable to do it. This is very important. especially if your nation is remote island, where the only mean of communication is via aircraft. We had seen a life example, where the air services in East Malaysia is, for some areas, the mean to get around. The traffic is very low, and as such it is not a profitable routes. The national airlines has to operate these routes as a loss.

For various reasons, international air travel has long been subjected to all types of restrictions and bilateral treaties between nations. You may be wondering, how did this restrictions come about. One of the main treaties that sets out the fundamental building blocks of air transportation regulation - the 'rules of the air' - is the Chicago Convention in 1944.

These initial thinkings are widely referred to as the "freedoms of the air", and they are fundamental to the international route network we have today. There are five basic freedoms recognized by all countries, the last two are less widely accepted, and one hardly accepted at all.

For each specific conditions, such as establishing the frequency of flights, are determined through bilateral agreements between any two of the countries. Normally the airlines are not involved.

First Freedom - The right to fly and carry traffic over the territory of another partner to the agreement without landing. (Almost all countries are partners to the Convention but some have observed this freedom better than others. When the Korean airliner lost its way over Soviet air space a few year ago and was shot down, the Soviet Union (among other offenses!) violated this First Freedom.)

Second Freedom - The right to land in those countries for technical reasons such as refueling without boarding or deplaning passengers.

Third Freedom - The right of an airline from one country to land in a different country and deplane passengers coming from the airline’s own country.

Fourth Freedom - The right of an airline from one country to land in a different country and board passengers traveling to the airline’s own country.

Fifth Freedom - This freedom is also sometimes referred to as 'beyond rights'. It is the right of an airline from one country to land in a second country, to then pick up passengers and fly on to a third country where the passengers then deplane. An example would be a flight by American Airlines from the US to England that is going on to France. Traffic could be picked up in England and taken to France.

Sixth Freedom - The right to carry traffic from one state through the home country to a third state. Example: traffic from England coming to the US on a US airline and then going on to Canada on the same airline.

Seventh Freedom - The right to carry traffic from one state to another state without going through the home country. Example would be traffic from England going to Canada on a US airline flight that does not stop in the US on the way.

Eighth Freedom - This is also called cabotage and almost no country permits it. Airline cabotage is the carriage of air traffic that originates and terminates within the boundaries of a given country by an air carrier of another country. An example of this would be an airline like Virgin Atlantic Airways operating flights between Chicago and New Orleans.



specially for those who want to be a air hostess.