The discussion of 7th freedom above presupposes that the nationality and ownership of airlines is
clear. In practice it is not, and the notion of the nationality of an airline is becoming more cloudy
over time. Until two or so decades ago, the nationality of an international airline was clear. An
airline would be owned by interests in a country, probably the national government, and it would
be based in that country and would have the core of its operations in that country. Over time, this
is ceasing to be the case. With privatisation, and the quotation of airlines on stock exchanges, it
has become possible for interests outside the country to part own the airline. Partly because most
international air service agreements specify that airlines from a country be substantially owned
and controlled by that country’s interests, governments have put limits on the ownership of their
international airlines. Thus the US limits foreign ownership of its airlines to 25% or less, and
other countries put a limit of just less than 50%.