Bob Moore wrote:
wrote
FWIW the US does restrict foreign-registered ships and planes from
carrying domestic passengers. A Thai Airlines flight that originates
at JFK and stops at LAX to pick up more pax and fuel cannot sell a
ticket for the JFK-LAX segment. Similarly, cruises to Alaska start in
Vancouver rather than Seattle because the ships are all registered
under flags of convenience.

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.

Yes, and a rancid little bit of protectionism it is.

If permitted, the primary effect of cabotage in the US would likly be
on transcontinental flights, particularly where routes from LAX/SFO/SEA
to Europe run over the US northeast. Secondarily would be southeast
US-Asia routes which often cross over SEA. Passengers strongly prefer
direct flights and modern equipment means you can connect nearly any
city pair in the world if you can fill the seats. Of course, allowing
cabotage would open new opportunities, since you could take an A-380,
start in LAX, then JFK, thence CDG. Allowing the sale of tickets on the
LAX-JFK segment makes this a lot easier to pull off. Ultimately the US
consumer benefits as LAX-JFK tickets get cheaper, and there are more
flights from LAX and JFK to CDG.

Practically speaking, this is mostly an issue for the US since there
are very few other places where geography and politics intersects
properly. There is nothing preventing Delta from operating service from
FRA-LHR-JFK, and selling the FRA-LHR segment, except that passengers
going from FRA-JFK don't want to stop in London, even if it is a
marvelous city. The only other places I can think of where this would
really make sense would be Japan (Sapporo-Osaka) or China
(Beijing-Shanghai-Guangzhou). Everywhere else you go, you're crossing
national barriers and cabotage is no longer the obstacle.

Fair is fair, and if we allow this, we ought to lean on the EU and
other countries to allow US-owned/operated airlines more access to
local markets. Southwest or Scaretran would no doubt love to get in on
Japan, China, or Europe, and that would mean more Boeing airframes, GE
engines, and Rockwell avionics being made here.

-cwk.