Freedoms of the Air Law and Legal Definition
Freedoms of the air refer to a set of commercial aviation rights and privileges granted to a country which facilitates that country’s entry and landing in another country's airspace. Currently there are nine freedoms of the air. They are:
the right to fly over a foreign country, without landing there;
the right to refuel or carry out maintenance in a foreign country on the way to another country;
the right to fly from one's own country to another;
the right to fly from another country to one's own;
the right to fly between two foreign countries during flights while the flight originates or ends in one's own country;
the right to fly from a foreign country to another one while stopping in one's own country for non-technical reasons;
the right to fly between two foreign countries while not offering flights to one's own country;
the right to fly between two or more airports in a foreign country while continuing service to one's own country;
the right to do traffic within a foreign country without continuing service to one's own country.
The first two freedoms are formulated in the Chicago convention on civil aviation. The other freedoms are usually exchanged between countries in bilateral or multilateral air services agreements.
