The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Single Aviation Market (SAM), dubbed the open skies policy, seeks to liberalize air services under a single and unified air transport market in ASEAN by 2015. Air travel is part of a larger discussion among the proposed ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), whose objective is to increase economic integration among members through the harmonization of trade and investment policies under a single market and production base. The AEC, also slated for 2015, will rapidly transform the region into a fiercely competitive, unified player in the world’s economy, boosting intraregional trade and investment flows and attracting investors to take advantage of a significant consumer market.
Southeast Asia already boasts a combined GDP of more than $2.2 trillion and a population of approximately 620 million, exceeding NAFTA and the European Union in size. Regional trade and investment liberalization have further increased production networks to less-developed and previously restricted countries, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. In the next two decades, individual states are projected to post an average annual growth rate of 6 percent, and the SAM is meant to contribute to that.