What is 6th Freedom?

[chornedsnorkack]

What precisely is the 6th freedom?

If one flies an airline to an airport in the home country of the airline and then the same airline to a third country, when is such a trip legal use of 3rd and 4th freedom, and when is a violation of the lack of 6th freedom committed?

[Globaliser]

Definitions of the freedoms here on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedoms_of_the_air).

I'm not an expert on this, but the mention of SQ reminds me of one device they were using at the beginning of their push into Europe-Australia services. They couldn't use a single flight number to sell (eg) SYD-LON tix, so the tix were written as a connection in SIN. However, the flight numbers for the SYD-SIN and SIN-LHR sectors were suspiciously similar to each other (IIRC, sometimes one had an A added to it), and funnily enough the same aircraft flew all the way through from SYD to LHR. I suspect that in this anecdote lies the seeds of the boundary between proper use of 3rd/4th freedoms and assumption of a 6th freedom service for which rights have not been granted.

Does SQ still do same aircraft service from SYD to LHR? I suspect that service has taken a step backwards in this respect since those pioneering days.

[rsoman]

Wilkipedia defines 6th freedom (which is the right definition) as
"The right to carry passengers or cargo from a second country to a third country by stopping in one's own country".

And virtually every book which gives this correct definition also says 6th freedom is a combination of 2 sets of 3rd/4th freedoms.

What Globaliser mentions is correct, but by naming the flight with the suffix A (no more the practice nowadays) it is effectively two different flights, two flight coupons and possibly an equipment change as well.

However there are still a very few flights operating which fits the textbook defnition of 6th freedom in every sense.

1 Aeroflight SU 582 operating on Saturdays using a 767 aircraft.
The flight operates Narita- Moscow-London Heathrow. Same flight number, same aircraft.

2 Air Tahiti TN 102 operating thrice weekly Auckland - Pappette-Los Angeles and vice Versa.

Both these fits the definitions perfectly. There may be a few others as well. Of these the Aeroflot serviced if I am not wrong has been operating for quite a few years.

[The SSK]

Obviously, sixth-freedom markets are the automatic consequence of combining third and fourth in a transfer connection. The relevance is in pricing. Just about any journey has an official published IATA fare and any airline or combination of airlines can sell that fare providing the itinerary is within specified mileage limits (roughly speaking, Great Circle plus 20%).

What airlines operating under the sixth freedom can't do without constraint is to undercut the published fare. A typical bilateral agreement - say, UK/Singapore, will set out the rights of the two sides to operate 3rd/4th, and probably has very liberal pricing provisions for point-to-point traffic, but will limit pricing freedom for SIA in UK/Australia markets and for BA in Singapore/USA markets, for example. They won't be forced to charge the full IATA rate, but they may have to submit their fares for government approval, or be subject to traffic quotas in the lower fare bands.

[rsoman]

Govt Approval for fares - I think is now steadily disappearing, isnt it? .And as for regulating the traffic columes at the lower price bands, again how practical and effective is it?

India is my home market, and I do know airlines like QR or MH carry a lot of these 6th freedom traffic by undercutting massively.

[The SSK]

I'm sure you are right, but pricing freedom (or lack of it) would still have to be spelled out in the bilateral.

[rsoman]

One more example of the "pure" 6th freedom.

LAN Peru is starting a one stop service using a 763 between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo.

LP 604/605 operates GRU LIM LAX and vv.

Get rather tired of a lot of "academics" passing off the "6th freddom" concept as a combination of "3rd and 4th" freedoms. While definitely not wrong, very few of these text book wizards bother to come up with actual examples such as this or the Aeroflot flight I mentioned earlier .(Aeroflot esp has operated 6th freedom same plane flights for the past 30 or so years).

[The SSK]

Get rather tired of a lot of "academics" passing off the "6th freddom" concept as a combination of "3rd and 4th" freedoms.... [snip] ... text book wizards ...
You talking about me? I have been employed by airlines for the past 38 years. I note in your profile you are a 'consultant'.

[rsoman]

SSK
Be rest assured, I am not talking about you.

Yep I am qualified travel agent and also worked for an airline as well. My ire is targetted at certain "professors" who teach students year after year about these stuff (I happened to be one of them - but after a decade of so working in the industry) and steadfastedly refuse to believe there are fifth freedom single flights as well (in addition to the combination of 3rd/4th freedoms). When I pointed out to one of these reknowned men, the Aeroflot (SU 582 LHR MOW NRT) example , I was told it was fifth freedom!!!

[The SSK]

rsoman

There is fifth freedom, there is sixth freedom, and there is Aeroflot LON-MOW-TYO. Believe me, it is a very special case. Because of the necessity for Europe-Japan services to transit large swathes of Russian airspace, they have always had huge leverage over the European and Japanese carriers and this has allowed Aeroflot to do things, under the various bilaterals, that they would not normally be allowed to do under the normal 3rd/4th provisions.

In the beginning, BA and JL operated LON-TYO with a tech stop in MOW and Aeroflot werre allowed to mirror this by operating a through-plane, through flight number service. In that respect, it was a lot more like fifth than sixth freedom.

When the European and Japanese carriers got the technical capability to fly the route nonstop, this obviously put SU at a huge commercial disadvantage. I suspect they could have demanded (and got) full 5th-freedom EUR-JPN nonstop rights in return for overflight clearance but they didn't have an aeroplane capable of doing it. Instead they negotiated very valuable 'royalty' deals with the Europeans who basically pay Aeroflot for the priviledge of not stopping in Moscow, to the tune of some $250 million a year.

Still a darn sight cheaper than going through Anchorage.

So I have to disagree, this is not 'true' sixth freedom. For that, look at KLM or SIA historically, or Emirates right now.

[Jordan D]

For that, look at KLM or SIA historically, or Emirates right now.

Care to explain the Emirates situation for my benefit?

Jordan

[rsoman]

SSK
Thank you for your informative post.
However,
Definition of 6th freedom
********
The right to carry passengers or cargo from a second country to a third country by stopping in one's own country.
********
So Aeroflot's manipulating and negotitating skills apart, dont you think this fits the bill of the classic 6th freedom definition?. Same for the Air Tahiti flight (AKL PPT LAX) where I assume the bargaining skills of Air Tahiti is not as big as that of NZ or the American carriers.
LON (2nd country) to TYO (3rd country) via carrier's home country -MOW ??
Correct me if I am wrong, but under fifth freedom , shouldn't the flight has to either originate or eventually terminate in the airline's home country (even for intermediate fifth freedoms)??
So in the case of SU 582 we are discussing, it definitely cannot be 5th freedom - right?? Also in this case (as well as the Air Tahiti/LAN PERU examples) there will just be one ticket coupon/boarding pass unlike all the other cases (SQ/KL/EK) where there will be two of them (of course under one revenue document).
Just wanted to take this opportunity to clarify things now that someone has raised this issue.