Cabotage rights for charters

[davidjohnson6]

I recently flew on a charter flight from the Netherlands (an EU member state) to Macedonia (not an EU member but would like to be)
The flight was sold by the Dutch arm of EU-based travel company TUI and had an Arkefly (Dutch airline owned by TUI) flight code.
The flight was operated by a US charter airline, Miami Air - both pilots, cabin crew manager and another cabin crew member were very much Americans. Two junior cabin crew were from Arkefly - mainly to speak Dutch to the passengers as the Americans spoke only english. Flight was operated on US-centric procedures with emphasis on FAA rules. Crew talked extensively about flight being operated by Miami Air.

Now for the question - as Macedonia is not an EU member, what kind of cabotage rules apply here ? Are charter carriers substantially exempt as long as they are hired by an airline which has traffic rights ?

[deltahotel9]

Sorry I don't know the answer to your question, however is it any different to the various Canadian airlines who have flown on behalf of UK charter airlines to places such as Turkey outside the EU for many years now?

[Suzeman]

Macedonia is part of the European Common Aviation Area and therefore subject to EC aviation law

The European Common Aviation Area - an ambitious agreement with partners from South-Eastern and Northern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, Norway and Iceland.
In December 2004, the Council of Ministers authorised the European Commission to start negotiations with eight South-East European partners (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the U.N. Mission in Kosovo) on a “European Common Aviation Area” (ECAA) agreement.

The objective was to integrate the EU’s neighbours in South-East Europe in the EU's internal aviation market which, at the time, consisted of 25 EU Member States as well as Norway and Iceland.

The negotiations were opened on 31 March 2005 with a multilateral high-level meeting, at which all negotiating parties expressed support for reaching the ECAA Agreement as quickly as possible. After only nine months of negotiations, the text of the ECAA Agreement was agreed between all parties in December 2005. (On 1 January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union.)

The eight South-East European partners agreed to the full application of the European Community’s aviation law (Community acquis). Once ECAA partners fully implement the EC’s aviation acquis, ECAA airlines will have open access to the enlarged European single market in aviation. The ECAA agreement will therefore create new market opportunities due to an integrated aviation market of 36 countries and more than 500 million people. At the same time, the agreement will lead to equally high standards in term of safety and security across Europe, through the uniform application of rules.

International Aviation - ECAA - Transport (http://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/international_aviation/country_index/ecaa_en.htm)

External Aviation Policy - A Common Aviation Area with the EU?s neighbours - Transport (http://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/international_aviation/external_aviation_policy/neighbourhood_en.htm)

[Cyrano]

Here's (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/276494/responses-and-government-decision.pdf) some history of the UK process for granting charter permits to third-country carriers, and here's (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=148&pagetype=90&pageid=13220) the current process. It used to be the case that if a charterer wanted to bring in a non-scheduled carrier which is not established in the country in question, it had first to obtain "non-objections" from those carriers established in the country, in other words they had a kind of "right of first refusal" to take on the business. In the UK at least that has now been eliminated; I'm not sure what the situation is in the Netherlands. (This is quite different to the situation for scheduled flights, which would be based on bilateral agreements and/or European Open Skies - so there would be no question of a US carrier being allowed in to operate an intra-EU scheduled service, at least not until such time as foreign carriers are allowed to operate US domestic services. I think the universe is likely to cease to exist sooner than that will happen.)

[clipstone1]

I think you will find that Miami Air are actually flying on OR flight numbers, therefore it is just a sub-charter flight (albeit there are on long term sub-charter)

Similarly, Thomson have two airlines operating for them this summer, some of the flights are on the airlines own flight number (technically contracted by the tour operator) some are on TOM flight numbers because they are to Turkey so are operated as a sub-charter for Thomson Airways.

[Mr Oleo Strut]

In the old days certain PanAm flights ex New York would stop-over at Prestwick en-route to Heathrow and Frankfurt, and then the reverse on the way back. Under the then cabotage rules they were allowed to pick up domestic passengers for the Prestwick/Heathrow leg providing such folk were segregated on board and denied access to the duty-free stuff. To guarantee that, one of us Customs lads would ride shot-gun on the flight up or back. The flights were rarely full and international pax had to sit in the front half of the 707, with the domestics at the back, and the Customs chap in the middle to see fair play. It was great - good food (my favourites were the enormous club sandwiches, with many Budweisers, Jack Daniels and puffs on Camels and Winstons), chatty hostesses and cheerful flight crew. On one occasion they'd just fitted piped music to all seats and it was fantastic. Often the return journey by plane or train was just a blur. And all to exercise rights of cabotage!