Yep, you're basically right as below. Normally private flights have either no permit requirements, or they're a simple debt check and permit granted.
Commercial charter requirements vary depending on the items listed in my original reply. For example, our company arranged for a nonEU-reg bizjet to operate commercially within the EU. If it had been a EU reg it would have been unfettered under the ECAC Agreement, but as an outsider this required us to gain individual authority from the countries affected, all of whom have different levels of home market protectionism in place.
The same is true around the world. Many countries don't care about the type of the flight, but others will put operators through differing levels of checks - some cursory, others more detailed - but sometimes intended to put a stick in the spokes of a foreign OPR stepping on their turf! That said, with a handful of exceptions, most authorities are willing to help and will normally give approvals faster than published timescales. It also depends on the scale of the intended operation - a one off Global Express clearly has different implications to, say, a summer charter 767.
Bilateral agreements are by definition government to government deals, but I believe you're broadly right that MOU are exchanged for routes/carriers.
Last edited by dallas; 10th May 2015 at 09:54.