Uzbekistan Airways

North Atlantic fifth freedom airline operations are rare. This is not "Open Skies" by any measure

Although there is something called an Open Skies agreement on the North Atlantic, there are still considerable restrictions on market access. The agreement between the EU and the US allows airlines from both sides to fly on any route and with no capacity limits between Europe and the US. There is now a similar agreement between the EU and Canada.

However, there is only a very small number of airlines operating passenger routes on the North Atlantic that are not based in either Europe or North America. For all the progress in liberalising market access within the EU and between the EU and North America, this highlights the considerable restrictions that still impede market access on a global basis.

According to OAG data, airlines from other regions operate only 2.5% of seats between Europe and North America in Feb-2016. This share falls to 1.4% in Aug-2016. This report presents the details of the eight airlines and 13 passenger routes involved. To put these numbers into context, OAG data indicate that in Aug-2016 there will be a total of 49 airlines and 458 routes between Europe and North America.

European airlines ramp-up capacity to China

Asia Pacific, particularly China, is one of the current destination hotspots for European carriers, with connections between Europe and China improving in recent months and over the past couple of years. The initial focus was obviously on providing connectivity between key European hubs and the capital city of Beijing, with services to Shanghai also quite extensive, although a number of carriers are adding service to secondary, albeit still large destinations in China, such as Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqin, Urumqi, Sancha, Dalian and Harbin.