Traffic rights are a kind of national air transport rights formulated by the world aviation industry through the International Civil Aviation Organization, because as long as air transport exceeds its own national borders, it involves the sovereignty of other countries, international air transport needs a unified regulation within the global industry, and traffic rights are part of this regulation.When these rights are exchanged and negotiated between two different countries, the principle of reciprocity is generally adopted, and sometimes a higher exchange rate or compensation fee is proposed by one of the countries to properly protect the interests of the airline enterprise of that country.

The origin of the concept of ""air rights""

"Traffic rights" (aviation "business rights") are a very important issue in international air transport, involving market access rights.
If an airline is engaged in international air transport business, it is impossible for it to enter the market without access to air traffic rights. Even if certain traffic rights are obtained, but the rights are not sufficient, it is difficult to operate international air transport business.
Therefore, no matter as the government departments in charge of civil aviation, or air transport enterprises, they attach great importance to this.



Why open up traffic rights?
Because in the history, the creation of the concept of ""traffic rights"" is the ""tool"" of the country to protect its aviation resources;
Under the general trend of economic globalization today, not opening up "traffic rights" has become a hindrance to the development of air transport.
"traffic rights" is the concept of international air transport, first appeared in 1944 Chicago International Civil Aviation Conference, is the product of history.
On October 13, 1919, 32 countries signed the Paris Convention on the Control of Air Navigation.
This is the first international aviation law treaty, aviation law scholars regard it as the ""birth certificate"" of aviation law, has extremely important historical significance.
Drafted by the Aviation Committee of the Paris Peace Conference and its Technical, Legal and Financial subcommittees, and approved by the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference, the Treaty defines the legal norms for air navigation and, at its core, defines the principle of sovereignty over airspace.
The Convention does not address commercial aspects of air transport, except in article 15, which refers to overflights, the establishment of international air routes, and the opening and operation of scheduled international routes.
On February 20, 1928, 16 American states signed the Havana Inter-American Convention on Commercial Aviation.Article 21 of the Convention provides that: ""Any aircraft of a Contracting State engaged in international commercial aviation may discharge passengers and part of its cargo at an airport arriving in another Contracting State and continue on to another airport or airports in that State for the purpose of discharging the remaining passengers and cargo and may in the same manner load passengers and cargo bound for one or more foreign States, provided that the aircraft complies with the legal requirements of the State through which it is flying, These legal requirements shall be the same for national and foreign aircraft engaged in international navigation and shall be communicated to the Contracting States and the Pan-American Union through appropriate channels.""

It is clear from the above provisions that this should be an important step towards the liberalization of international business air transport.
However, the protectionist policies of the Latin American member states at the time made this provision ineffective.
The Second World War greatly stimulated the development of aviation technology, especially for the United States to create a great air transport capacity, for the post-war aviation for civil use to provide material conditions.

From November 1 to December 7, 1944, the International Civil Aviation Conference was held in Chicago at the invitation of the United States and attended by representatives from 52 countries.
At the end of 1944, the United States operated more than 80 percent of the international air routes that had been opened by then.
Thus, the United States advocated ""freedom of the air"" to clear the way for its war-inflated air power to sail the world.
President Roosevelt made that very clear in his opening remarks.
Roosevelt declared that the struggle for possession of the high seas leads to war.
Only a free ocean can bring peace and economic benefits to the world.
In order to build a lasting peace, while recognizing the sovereignty and equality of every nation, he prayed for complete freedom of the air for international trade.
Led by the United Kingdom, the United States proposed the economic regulation theory in response to the trade freedom theory.
After fierce debate, the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which was finally signed, failed to reach an agreement on the right to operate international air transport except for the principle provisions in Article 6 on international scheduled flights, Article 5 on non-scheduled flights and article 7 on the right to domestic carriage.
As Edward Varney, a member of the United States delegation to the Chicago Conference and the first President of the ICAO Council, put it: The main issue left unfinished at the Chicago Conference was the right to trade.
In order to remedy this shortcoming, the Conference signed, in addition to the Chicago Convention, the Agreement on the Transit of International Air Services (commonly known as the ""Two Great Freedoms"") and the Agreement on International Air Transport (collectively known as the Five Freedoms).
The Agreement states: ""Each Contracting Party shall grant to the other Contracting Parties freedom of the air in the following scheduled international flights:
(1) The right to fly over its territory without landing; (2) The right to stop for non-commercial purposes;
(3) The right to disembark passengers, cargo and mail originating from the territory of the State of nationality of the aircraft;
(4) The right to carry passengers, cargo and mail destined for the territory of the State of nationality of the aircraft;
(5) The right to load and unload passengers, goods and mail to or from the territory of any other Contracting State.

This is the origin of the concept of "traffic rights".

However, it was then called "Freedoms of the Air" or "Privileges".
Later, in practice, the concept of "Traffic Rights" developed into, in addition to the above-mentioned ""five freedoms of air"", ""sixth, seventh and eighth freedoms"", and even ""ninth freedoms"".
The International Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China has always translated ""Traffic Rights"" into ""business rights"", that is, the right to transport passengers, baggage, cargo and mail services, while Taiwan's civil aviation counterparts have designated it as ""traffic rights"".
With the increasingly frequent exchanges between the cross-strait civil aviation circles, the title of ""air rights"" has also been called open in the mainland.
In 1962, Professor Zheng Bin, a famous expert in aviation law, published his famous book International Air Transport Law, which clearly discussed what ""Traffic Rights"" ("" business rights ""or"" traffic rights "") are. WTO ""General Agreement on Trade in Services"" ""air transport Annex"" also has a ""Traffic Rights"", according to its definition, it includes route rights, business rights (or air rights), management rights, capacity rights, freight rights five rights, so the Chinese can no longer be called ""business rights"" or ""aviation rights"", and it is named ""operation rights"".
The Chicago Agreement on Nine types of Traffic Rights was drafted as a model for negotiated terms of air transport between the two countries, which are still in use today.
It is divided into nine types, and the following is a brief introduction in turn.
The first freedom: The right of overflight without landing
The national aircraft can fly over the airspace of the agreement country, to other countries.
For example: Chinese airlines aircraft, between Beijing and San Francisco, halfway over Japanese airspace, it is necessary to sign airspace overflight rights with Japan, to obtain the first freedom in Japan, otherwise it can only detour, increase fuel consumption and flight time, high cost.
For example, after Qatar was screened by many countries some time ago, it lost the first freedom of countries that broke relations with it, Qatar Airways was banned from flying to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates airspace, so its planes had to carefully "detour".

For example, China did not have the right to fly over Russia's airspace 20 years ago, and Europe took the "southern route", which formed the history of China's "hot flight" to the United Arab Emirates Sharjah, and all European flights passed through Sharjah, more than 20 takeoffs and landings per week, bringing prosperity to Sharjah.
In the late 1980s, China obtained the right to fly over Russia, and European flights were changed to the northern route, and the flight hours were reduced from the original 15-16 hours to about 10 hours, and airlines saved a lot of fuel costs.
After changing to the "northern route", the prosperity of Sharjah airport and even the local economy of Sharjah have been affected.
But Russian airspace route fees are expensive, for example, one of the reasons why a European airline stopped flying to China was because it could not afford the cost of Russian airspace route fees.



■ Schematic diagram of first freedom

Second freedom: technical stop right
On the way to a foreign country, due to technical needs (such as refueling, aircraft failure or meteorological reasons for diversion), land in or stop over in the Agreement country, but shall not do any business work, such as loading and unloading passengers, cargo and mail.
For example, if the aircraft of China Airlines flies from Beijing to New York, and cannot fly directly due to the type of aircraft, it needs to land in Japan and refuel in the middle, but it is not allowed to get on and off passengers and cargo.
It is time to sign a technical suspension agreement with Japan.
As aircraft manufacturing technology becomes more advanced, long-range wide-body passenger aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 can fly for 15 hours without problem, so second freedom are basically unnecessary.

■ Schematic diagram of second freedom

Third freedom: right to disembark passengers at destination
Aircraft can unload passengers, mail or cargo within the territory of the agreement country (the domestic country will load passengers and cargo to fly to the agreement country).
For example, if a Chinese airline flies from Beijing to Tokyo and obtains third freedom, passengers and cargo carried by the Chinese aircraft can enter Tokyo, but they can only return empty.




■ Schematic diagram of third freedom 

Fourth freedom: right to pick up passengers at destination
Aircraft can carry passengers, mail or cargo back within the territory of the agreement country (the agreement country loads passengers and cargo and flies to its own country).
For example, if a China Airlines flight from Beijing to Tokyo is granted fourth freedom rights, the aircraft can carry passengers, mail or cargo from Tokyo back to Beijing on the original flight.



■ Schematic diagram of fourth freedom

The third and fourth freedom are twin brothers. At present, most international flights involve the third and fourth freedom. In the negotiation of traffic rights between two countries, the determination of this right is not simply a determination of permission or not allowed, but include specific content:
Capacity: How many flights are allowed in a week, whether passenger or cargo, some have to determine the aircraft type, or there is no restriction on the aircraft type, but the number of seats is limited, and some have limited slots.
Navigation points: Where navigation within the territory is allowed, some are specific navigation locations, and some are the number of navigation locations.
Carrier: howm many airlines are allowed to fly this route, sometimes one, sometimes multiple, and sometimes it is determined to be a passenger carrier or a cargo carrier.
Fifth freedom rights: intermediate point rights or extension rights
When a carrier transports passengers and goods from its own country to another country, it can use a third country (that is, a country other than the country of origin and destination) as a midpoint to pick up and drop off passengers and goods before arriving at the country of destination.
Alternatively, the carrier transports passengers and cargo originating from its own country to the agreement country, and after loading the passengers and cargo, it can be transported to a third country.
The departure point of the flight must be the country to which the foreign airline belongs. Fifth freedom rights refers to a country’s bilateral agreement between two countries. In the agreement between the two countries, the other country is allowed to exercise rights related to third-country transportation.
Without the consent of the third country, this power is null and void.
For example, the famous Air China separation flight CA907, Beijing-Madrid, Spain-S?o Paulo, Brazil, Air China obtained the fifth freedom in Spain, and can pick up and unload passengers and cargo in Madrid, and then transport the passengers from Madrid to Sao Paulo.
The difference between fifth and second freedom is that it allows aircraft to land and unload passengers and cargo at stops, which means that countries that open fifth freedom must not only share the market between the flying countries, but also share Market resources to the third country of destination.

■ Schematic diagram of fifth freedom 

Sixth freedom: bridge rights
Airlines from a certain country or region carry passengers and cargo between two countries or regions overseas, but they must pass through the country of registration. The sixth freedom are actually a combination of the third and fourth freedom.
For example, in the London-Beijing-Seoul route, Air China transports passengers originating from the UK via Beijing and then to South Korea.
Singapore Airlines makes good use of sixth freedom on Europe-Australia routes and Japan and South Korea Airlines on China-US routes.
Singapore Airlines carries passengers between the UK and Australia. These passengers are not going to Singapore, but Singapore Airlines pulls European passengers over through its hub at Changi Airport and then transports them to Australia.
Similarly, on Sino-US routes, Japanese and Korean airlines have made good use of their sixth freedom, seizing a large amount of market share from Sino-US carriers.
They transport tourists from the United States to Japan first, then transfer them, and then transport them to China.

■ Sixth freedom diagram

Seventh freedom: full third country transportation rights
Carry passengers and cargo between two countries or regions overseas without returning to the home country.
For example, the route from London, England to Paris, France is operated by Lufthansa Airlines from Germany.

■ Seventh freedom diagram

Eighth freedom: domestic transportation (continuous domestic transportation)
The right of airlines of a certain country or region to carry passengers and cargo between two or more airports within the territory of the agreement country or region must use their own country as the starting point or end point.
For example, if Japan Airlines obtains the eighth air rights granted by China, it can transport passengers and cargo from Tokyo to Beijing first, and then continue flying to Chengdu after loading and unloading passengers and cargo in Beijing.
In a sense, the eighth freedom are actually the extension rights of the third and fourth freedom in other countries, but the route must be the end or starting point of the domestic airport.
For another example, in 2016, Emirates Airline launched the Dubai-Yinchuan-Zhengzhou route, but this route does not actually belong to the eighth freedom rights.
Because passengers can take this flight from Dubai to Yinchuan and get off the plane, or they can buy a ticket from Dubai to Zhengzhou, which will stop in Yinchuan, and then continue flying to Zhengzhou and get off the plane.
However, Emirates Airlines does not have the right to solicit passengers for the domestic segment from Yinchuan to Zhengzhou, and will not sell tickets to external parties.

■ Schematic diagram of the eighth freedom

Ninth freedom: complete domestic transportation rights (independent domestic transportation)
Routes between two or more airports in the agreement country do not need to involve the home country.
For example, if Japan opens the ninth freedom to the United States, United Airlines can operate the Tokyo-Osaka domestic route in Japan.

Special "Fifth Freedom"
Fifth freedom are the most complex and richest among various freedom rights.
The fifth freedom (right to transport to a third country): The carrier goes to a permitted country and unloads passengers and cargo carried from a third country to that country, or carries passengers and cargo from that country to a third country.
1. The carrier's home country (the first country of origin) - the third country where it stops on the way - the country of destination (the second country)
When a carrier transports passengers and goods from its home country to another country, it passes through a third country (that is, a country other than the country of origin and destination) and is allowed to unload the passengers and goods that pass through the third country to the country of destination. This right is a type of fifth freedom rights.
For example, the bilateral agreement between China and Singapore allows Chinese carriers to choose a stopover point in Southeast Asia and transport local passengers and cargo to Singapore.
This is very beneficial to the Chinese carrier's tourism transportation between Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. One flight can have passengers from China and Singapore, as well as passengers from Thailand and Singapore. At the same time, because China and Thailand originally have the third and fourth air rights, so at the same time there are also Chinese-Thailand travelers.
When travel agencies organize tours to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, they can choose the same company to undertake all the flights, which is very competitive and convenient for passengers.
If you don’t have fifth freedom rights, you need to find at least two companies to carry your Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand tour.
However, it should be noted that whether you can successfully exercise fifth freedom rights requires the consent of the government of the country you are stopping at.

(2) The carrier's own country (the first country of origin) - the country of destination (the second country) - and further to a third country

The second type of the fifth freedom is the carriage to a distant country, the carrier will be the passenger and freight originating from its own country to the destination country, and at the same time is allowed to board the passenger and freight from the destination country, and is allowed to transport to another country.
In the case of Singapore and Thailand, a bilateral agreement between China and Thailand allows Chinese carriers to transport passengers and goods from Thailand to another country in Southeast Asia, and agrees to transport passengers and goods from another country in Southeast Asia to Thailand.
In this way, the Chinese carrier chose Singapore, which formed the China-Thai-Singapore route.
It can be seen that only when the carrier has the two fifth freedom at the same time, it can fully use these rights, otherwise, even if it has obtained one of them, it is difficult to operate.
The fifth freedom is in the context of bilateral agreements between two countries, in which the other party is allowed to exercise rights relating to third-country transport.

But in the absence of the consent of a third State, this right amounts to nothing.
Therefore, when airlines use this right, they must also consider whether China and this ""third country"" have corresponding rights.
The fifth freedom is complex because it involves multiple bilateral agreements and means different kinds of traffic rights in different agreements.
In addition, the base airlines are not willing to open the fifth freedom, because the release of the fifth freedom is equivalent to giving the market resources that the base airlines naturally occupy to foreign airlines.
The market resources that could be realized by the base airlines through the third and fourth freedom are taken by foreign airlines using the fifth freedom.
For the airport, on the contrary, if the base airline is not active and strong enough, rather than let the huge market demand because of the lack of supply of base airlines idle, it is better to open the fifth freedom for foreign airlines to fly.
For the airport, no matter who flies, as long as it can increase the airport capacity, takeoff and landing sorties.
Because the income of the main business of airport aviation is directly related to these.
With the continuous development of the aviation industry, the concept of code sharing and third country code sharing later appeared, so modern air rights have a lot of new derivatives on the basis of the nine kinds of air rights mentioned above, here it will no longer be introduced to you, interested children's shoes can search online to learn.
So, traffic rights is such an endless, charming "thing".