Published in 1999, the pre-eminent concern of the air transport industry and aircraft manufacturers at the present time is safety in the air. It is also the foremost priority of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The basic strategic objective of the ICAO Strategic Action Plan, which was adopted by the ICAO Council in 1997, is to further safety, security and efficiency of international civil aviation. This book discusses the causative factors which may adversely affect the safety of civil aviation and analyzes the regulatory process which has been set in motion by the ICAO and the regional civil aviation bodies – AFCAC, ECAC and LACAC – in order to ensure the safety of international civil aviation and effectively manage the factors which may threaten the safety of air transport. It also offers self-contained conclusions after the examination of each instance, calculated to ensure the safety of aviation. The book will prove useful to lawyers, government agencies, airlines, economists, social scientists, politicians and journalists.

The principle of airline substantial ownership and effective control is one of the biggest impediments to the air transport industry growth. Legitimately included in the bilateral agreements since 1946 for national security reasons, States have maintained the principle over the years and used it as a protectionist tool, as well as a bargaining chip. Today, considering that liberalization and globalization concepts are already well-established in the biggest industrial sectors, and a large number of cross-border investments occurs in most of the service sectors through mergers and acquisitions, the time is ripe to remove national restrictions on foreign investments from the airline industry. This comprehensive book identifies those factors that still justify the imposition of national ownership restrictions on airlines and examines the prospects for change in the current policies and regulatory regimes that support them. The readership includes specialists in government departments of transportation, civil aviation authorities and agencies, international organizations, airline executives concerned with general management, economic, legal and public affairs, aviation lawyers, airline pilot associations, law schools concerned with international aviation law.

This book addresses emerging legal and economic issues in competition and investment in air transport, against the backdrop of the role governments and airlines should play in avoiding protectionism and encouraging innovation and creativity. It evaluates current trends in air transport and the direction the industry is taking in the twenty first century. There are discussions on key aspects of air transport, such as safety assurance and environmental protection, as they are impacted by competition. The rapid evolution of aerospace transport and its effect on competition in air transport is also examined. A recurring theme of the book is the influence of creative destruction and disruptive innovation on air transport. This is addressed through an in-depth study of the contentious areas of law relating to the abuse of dominant positions and state aid, as reflected in the ongoing claim by the three largest US carriers against Gulf carriers such as Emirates Airlines, Etihad and Qatar Airways. The US carriers claim that Emirates and Etihad – which operate air services into the United States by virtue of an open-skies agreement between the US and The United Arab Emirates - are using generous subsidies given to them by their g overnments to illegally capture the “legitimate” market belonging to the US carriers. These issues are clarified in the book using analyses of competition law and investment law as they apply to air transport, free-trade-agreement analogies and an open-skies case study.

Published in 1999, the pre-eminent concern of the air transport industry and aircraft manufacturers at the present time is safety in the air. It is also the foremost priority of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The basic strategic objective of the ICAO Strategic Action Plan, which was adopted by the ICAO Council in 1997, is to further safety, security and efficiency of international civil aviation. This book discusses the causative factors which may adversely affect the safety of civil aviation and analyzes the regulatory process which has been set in motion by the ICAO and the regional civil aviation bodies - AFCAC, ECAC and LACAC - in order to ensure the safety of international civil aviation and effectively manage the factors which may threaten the safety of air transport. It also offers self-contained conclusions after the examination of each instance, calculated to ensure the safety of aviation. The book will prove useful to lawyers, government agencies, airlines, economists, social scientists, politicians and journalists.

Decades of continuous efforts to address known hazards in the national airspace system (NAS) and to respond to issues illuminated by analysis of incidents and accidents have made commercial airlines the safest mode of transportation. The task of maintaining a high level of safety for commercial airlines is complicated by the dynamic nature of the NAS. The number of flights by commercial transports is increasing; air traffic control systems and procedures are being modernized to increase the capacity and efficiency of the NAS; increasingly autonomous systems are being developed for aircraft and ground systems, and small aircraftâ€"most notably unmanned aircraft systemsâ€"are becoming much more prevalent. As the NAS evolves to accommodate these changes, aviation safety programs will also need to evolve to ensure that changes to the NAS do not inadvertently introduce new risks. Real-time system-wide safety assurance (RSSA) is one of six focus areas for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aeronautics program. NASA envisions that an RSSA system would provide a continuum of information, analysis, and assessment that supports awareness and action to mitigate risks to safety. Maintaining the safety of the NAS as it evolves will require a wide range of safety systems and practices, some of which are already in place and many of which need to be developed. This report identifies challenges to establishing an RSSA system and the high-priority research that should be implemented by NASA and other interested parties in government, industry, and academia to expedite development of such a system.

Air ambulance transport is widely regarded as improving the chances of survival for trauma victims and other critical patients. However, recent increases in the number of air ambulance accidents have led to greater industry scrutiny by gov¿t. agencies, the public, the media, and the industry itself. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and others have called on the FAA, which provides safety oversight, to issue more stringent safety requirements for the industry. This testimony discusses: (1) recent trends in the air ambulance industry with regard to its size, composition, and safety record; (2) recent industry and gov¿t. efforts to improve air ambulance safety; and (3) potential strategies for improving air ambulance safety. Charts and tables.