Originally Posted by
Skyone
Really would like to understand this. There is an uproar about the EK 205, Dubai, Milan, JFK and return. In principle, please, how is this different than Atlanta, Narita, Bankok? Not flame, but would like to understand, again in principle, why one is different than the other. The 205 was agreed to by the Italian government, although there may be a change in the wind, now that Etihad owns a major stake of Alitalia. What about when Delta for eons was doing Atlanta, Paris, Mumbai or Atlanta, Amsterdam, Stuggart?
Thanks.
I'll give it a shot.
Fifth freedom rights are the right to fly between two foreign countries on a flight originating or ending in one's own country.
Historically (I'm carbon dating myself here, as Open Skies treaties have somewhat changed the landscape), it was difficult to gain fifth freedom rights.
The following is from memory; errors are possible/likely so if anyone wants to correct me, feel free to do so.
Due to the US' involvement in WWII, fifth freedom rights were granted to two US carriers in Europe and two US carriers in Asia. If you want more detail, do a search for the Bermuda Agreement (1946?).
In Europe, fifth freedom rights were granted to Pan Am and TWA(? - not sure on TWA).
In Asia, fifth freedom rights were granted to Northwest Orient and Pan Am.
European Pan Am fifth freedom rights were inherited by Delta with the purchase of their European routes.
Asian Pan Am fifth freedom rights were inherited by United with the purchase of their Pacific routes.
Asian Northwest Orient fifth freedom rights were inherited by Delta with the Northwest/Delta merger.
Other than those exceptions, the 'benchmark' for granting fifth freedom rights between two cities has been that the route is underserved and no origin/destination carrier desires to add service to those routes. On that basis, the JFK-MXP route authority should never have been granted to Emirates, as there is sufficient service on that route, served by Delta, American, and Alitalia.
I'll stop at this point because my belief is that Emirates was granted the route authority due to bribery ... or any other term you want to use to describe their use of contributions to influence politicians.