Fifth freedom flights, what are flights operated under "fifth freedom" regime

In recent days we have written about the new flight of Singapore Airlines that will connect Milan with Barcelona. This is not the first time we have talked about this type of flight, but we have never explained what they are in detail, how they are regulated, why companies choose this type of connection, and most importantly where they are operated.

What are Fifth Freedom flights

First, I must say that I prefer the English term Fifth Freedom rather than the Italian version of fifth freedom. In any case, it does not change the meaning of the translation.

These terms originated in the middle of the last century when trade treaties regulating the world of air transportation began to be written. Two agreements are written: the Transit Air Services Agreement and the International Air Transport Agreement. These treaties define some fundamental freedoms for air transportation.

Thus were born "the five freedoms of the air." The first two on transit, while the third, fourth and fifth are commercial. The treaty requires each individual country to grant the other signatory states technical and commercial freedoms:

• First freedom. It is the right of overflight. For example, ITA Airways, an Italian-flagged airline has the right to fly over Switzerland without landing.
• Second freedom. It is the right to land in a state for technical and non-commercial reasons. For example, ITA Airways can land in Turkey for gasoline, without disembarking/embarking any passengers
• The third and fourth freedoms enshrine the ability of a company to operate a commercial connection for the transportation of people and goods. For example, ITA Airways may operate a connection from Italy to Russia, and associated return flight
• The fifth freedom. The right of aircraft of a Contracting State to embark passengers, mail or cargo in the territory of the Contracting State with destination in the territory of any other Contracting State and disembark passengers, mail or cargo, coming from the territory of any other Contracting State. The example is the Singapore Airlines flight that leaves from Singapore, lands in Milan, and departs for Barcelona.

Today there are more rules, as agreements related to European regulations, for example, have sprung up. These include Open Skies, which regulates routes between the EU and the U.S. and enshrines the freedom of European and American companies to operate as many routes as they wish. For example, the treaty allows La Compagnie, a French carrier, to have a route from Milan in New York or Lufthansa to fly from the east coast of the U.S. to Malta.

Why companies choose to operate these routes

There are various motivations behind these choices, the first is the simplest and is a technical issue: The inability to fly from an airport to the flight destination without making a technical stopover, such as to refuel.

If ITA Airways decided to operate a flight to Australia it would, given the aircraft in its fleet, have to make a technical stopover in, for example, Hong Kong. There it would then, thanks to the fifth freedom, have the option of selling tickets for only the route to Hong Kong, the full route to Australia, or just the connection between Hong Kong and Australia.

The second motivation is commercial. Choosing to operate a route that is economically attractive, such as going to intercept customers that otherwise would not be possible to reach. An example in this case is the Emirates connection from Milan to New York. Or the flight that Singapore performs from Frankfurt to New York.

In these two examples, the routes are many others, the two carriers choose to land their own aircraft in Milan and Frankfurt in an attempt to enter the market and steal customers from competitors.

Then there is an opportunistic reason related to external factors, such as covid. One example is the two flights Singapore operates from Italy to Spain and Denmark. In this case, the Asian carrier has decided to Don't leave your A350s parked for 1 day at Malpensa and Copenhagen, adding a small flight towards Rome, from Copenhagen and Barcelona, from Milan.

In doing so, the company allows new customers to fly aboard its flagship and manages to offer at the same time a Connection from Barcelona or Rome to Asia without having to make a direct flight in the context of a lack of passengers.

The most interesting fifth freedom routes

From Italy certainly the flight from Milan Malpensa to New York aboard Emirates' A380. is one of the gems, being the only scheduled flight operated by the giant of the skies connecting our country with the United States. Also Emirates, but with a 777, connects Athens with New York and Barcelona with Mexico City.

Singapore Airlines offers a long and interesting list of fifth freedom flights, especially since the cost to book a ticket using Krisflyer points is generally less exacting compared to a flight to Singapore. Routes to watch out for besides Frankfurt-New York are: Los Angeles/Tokyo and San Francisco/Hong Kong.

From Paris there is the flight of Air Tahiti Nui connecting the French capital with Los Angeles., before departing for Polynesia.

In conclusion

The fifth freedom flights are a great thing for those who want to discover a new company Or fly in a particular plane. They are perfect because in many cases Generate competition by lowering prices and thus bringing indirect benefit to all travelers, even those who do not use them. Finally, they can also be useful for renewing elite status or "burn" a few handfuls of points that would otherwise be lost.