Expanding the Air Services Liberalisation Tool-Kit

Abstract

Air services is a term that can refer to a range of aviation related services including aircraft maintenance and repair, but also route access, flight frequency, national treatment, and levels of foreign ownership of airlines. It should be noted that the term ‘air services’ in this paper is intended to refer to route access, flight frequency, national treatment, and levels of foreign ownership of airlines. Where other types of air services are being discussed these will be specifically set out. Aviation is a significant industry in New Zealand that is growing, and progressive reform opportunities to benefit the sector (and New Zealand Inc) are worthy of further investigation. This research paper considers what current air services arrangements New Zealand has and how greater benefits from the development of New Zealand’s aviation connectivity might be realised by diversifying the reform tools used to progress liberalisation objectives. In essence, diversification of the types of agreements or negotiating modalities is needed, depending on the liberalisation objectives being pursued, which, in turn, may vary from market to market. This paper suggests that New Zealand should, therefore, not necessarily abandon the use of bilateral air services agreements altogether, but, where possible, should look to arrange plurilateral and regional agreements in the short-to-medium term, with a conscious view that such developments may progressively lead to multilateral air services liberalisation arrangements in the longer-term.