Miert, Karel van; Calleja, Daniel --- "Regulatory and Competition Issues in the Transatlantic Air Transport Sector: Towards a Transatlantic Open Aviation Area" [2006] ELECD 532; in Marsden, Philip (ed), "Handbook of Research in Trans-Atlantic Antitrust" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Handbook of Research in Trans-Atlantic Antitrust

Editor(s): Marsden, Philip

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845421816

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: Regulatory and Competition Issues in the Transatlantic Air Transport Sector: Towards a Transatlantic Open Aviation Area

Author(s): Miert, Karel van; Calleja, Daniel

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

15 Regulatory and competition issues in the
transatlantic air transport sector: towards
a transatlantic open aviation area
Karel van Miert and Daniel Calleja1


Introduction
The conclusion of an air transport agreement between the European Union
and United States of America will be a landmark in the history of inter-
national aviation. It would represent the culmination of a process started
more than 15 years ago on the European side, and should set a new tem-
plate for the regulation of international aviation worldwide.
In November 2005, negotiators from the EU and US finalized the text of
a comprehensive first-stage EU­US air transport agreement. As we move
into 2006, we are closer than ever to an agreement that many on both sides
have viewed as ultimately inevitable, but which has taken many years of
work to achieve. This chapter traces the history of the negotiations.

The development of a common air transport policy
Whereas in many sectors of the economy, the Treaty establishing the
European Community gave the Commission explicit responsibility, this
was not the case for the air transport sector.2 Consequently the develop-
ment of a common aviation policy at EU level, even in relation to the EU's
internal market, was a long and gradual process. Prior to the development
of this common policy, aviation in the European Community remained
subject to national rules and bilateral agreements between pairs of Member
States, following the approach of the Chicago Convention which instituted
in 1944 the framework bilateral ...