【明報專訊】On 22 May 2003 Singapore Airlines Cargo (新加坡航空貨運公司) became the first third-country freighter airline to fly direct between China and the United States. That marked the first time that the Chinese authorities had granted the fifth freedom of the air (第五航權) to an airline (航空公司).

The fifth freedom in perspective

The fifth freedom of the air is complicated but of immense economic benefits (經濟效益). A Singaporean airline might, for example, want to operate a flight route from Singapore to New York via Nanjing. A bilateral agreement (雙邊協定) has to be reached between the Chinese and Singaporean governments so as to allow the airline to drop off passengers and unload cargoes in China. This will greatly enhance the viability (存活能力) of the airline - it will be able to carry on board not only passengers coming from Singapore but also those from Nanjing. The airplane can also carry Nanjing-bound passengers who get on board in Singapore if agreements concerning the third and fourth freedoms of the air have been signed between the countries.

The fifth freedom of air also works the other way round. For example, a flight route from Singapore intended by the same airline might carry Singapore-bound – as well as Nanjing-bound - passengers who get on board in New York.

Implications for Mainland China and HK

In recent years the Chinese government has stepped up its effort in liberalising its aviation policy. In January 2015, for example, a Bangkok-bound airliner operated by Ural Airlines (烏拉爾航空公司), which is based in Russia, departed from Yekaterinburg (葉卡捷琳堡) and touched down at Harbin Taiping International Airport (哈爾濱太平國際機場). It was the first time that the fifth freedom of the air had been granted in northeast China (中國東北). Analysts believe that all this poses a challenge to the status of Hong Kong International Airport.

◆The freedoms of the air

The freedoms of the air are a set of commercial aviation rights that grant a country's airlines the privilege to enter and land in another country's airspace. There are altogether nine freedoms of the air as follows:(圖)

1st freedom of the air (領空飛越權):

the right to fly over foreign territory(A) without landing.

2nd freedom of the air (技術經停權):

the right to refuel or carry out maintenance in a foreign country(A)for non-traffic purposes.

3rd freedom of the air (目的地下客權):

the right to fly from one's own country to another.

4th freedom of the air (目的地上客權):

the right to fly from another country to one's own.

5th freedom of the air (中間點權或延遠權):

the right to fly between two foreign countries on a flight that begins or ends in one's own country.

6th freedom of the air (橋樑權):

the right to fly from a foreign country to another while stopping in one's own country for non-technical reasons.

7th freedom of the air (完全第三國運輸權):

the right to fly between two foreign countries while not offering flights to one's own country.

8th freedom of the air (連續的國內運輸權):

the right to fly inside a foreign country, continuing to one's own country.

9th freedom of the air (非連續的國內運輸權):

the right to fly inside a foreign country without continuing to one's own country.