Facilitating the Move to Open Sky
It is recognised that negotiating moves towards open skies is normally a difficult process.
Some ways in which change may be facilitated include:
• Linking aviation services with trade of other goods and services at the sub-regional
levels will allow countries to exploit the gains from freer movement of manufactured
goods, investments and tourism services.
• Building strategic links between tourism industry and agencies, on the one hand, and
aviation on the other will give voice to the tourism benefits which will flow from Open
Sky.
• Building a better data base in aviation will help, through highlighting problem areas,
identifying market opportunities, and enabling evaluation of changes.
• Promoting transparency in the allocation of traffic rights, airport and landing slots
between or among carriers as countries move from single to dual to multiple
designation policies in order to promote competition.
• Highlighting the consumer/passenger aspects of moving to Open Sky will result in a
more balanced evaluation of options at policy levels.
• Exploring the demonstration effect, such as from the impact low cost carriers make on
secondary markets, will illustrate the possible gains from more competition.
• Increasing the rigor of discussion of aviation issues, through training programs and
workshops will make policy makers more familiar with what to expect from Open Sky.