International law on air transport. 4.1.1 The Chicago System Notwithstanding the military and commercial importance associated with air transport almost from the beginning, the first attempts to create a comprehensive multilateral regime within the industry failed.1 An incomplete pattern of bilateral agreements evolved between the countries that had airlines and the countries to and from which those airlines wished to fly.2 The right of innocent passage was acknowledged but landing for commercial purposes was not allowed and depended on the individual authorisation of states. 1 See Conference Internationale de la Navigation Aerienne, Paris 8 May-28 June 1910. More details in M Xxxxx, ‘International Air Law and ICAO’ in M Xxxxx (ed), Essential Air and Space Law (Eleven International Publishing 2008) 5-12. 2 R Doganis, Flying off course, airline economics and marketing (4th edn Routledge 2010) (Doganis 2010) 28. In 1944, delegates from 52 countries gathered in Chicago to discuss the possibility of a multilateral agreement on air transport. The economic background of the US and the UK largely explains the outcome of the Chicago conference. The US had the equipment and ambition of creating a global air transport network but, nevertheless, lacked their own airfields around the world.3 The UK, on the other hand, had airports in each of the colonies but lacked a network to connect their empire, alongside a shortage of suitable aircraft. Under these circumstances, the US called for a multilateral open skies agreement, namely without limitation on market parameters such as tariffs, capacity or routing.4 The UK stressed that the proposed system should serve the needs of the travelling public and provide parties with a ‘fair share’ of traffic.5 The two conflicting approaches resulted in the failure of an extensive multilateral agreement for commercial activities to emerge, which has – to this day – determined the shape of international aviation. Despite this, the following agreements were reached. The Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention)6 deals with every aspect of commercial aviation, operation of aircraft and air services, both in the air and on the ground. The Convention reaffirms the states’ complete and exclusive sovereignty over their airspace and declares an equal right for all signatories to participate in international air transport.7 The Chicago Convention also set up the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a United Nations specialised agency. Article 6 of th...
