Agreements

The EU–US Open Skies Agreement

The EU–US Open Skies Agreement replaced dozens of separate national agreements with a single transatlantic framework.

Key facts. Signed: April 30, 2007, Washington, D.C. Effective: March 30, 2008. Phase two signed: June 2010. Superseded: earlier bilateral agreements between the U.S. and individual European countries, including Bermuda II.

Before the agreement

The United States had concluded Open Skies agreements with many individual European countries, but not with all of them, and the United Kingdom's Bermuda II agreement tightly restricted access to London Heathrow. In 2002 the European Court of Justice ruled that the nationality clauses in member states' bilateral agreements conflicted with EU law, which pushed the European Union to negotiate as a bloc.

What it allows

Any EU airline and any U.S. airline may fly between any point in the EU and any point in the United States.
Airlines may continue to destinations in third countries after their initial stop.
U.S. airlines may fly between two points in the EU as a continuation of a service from the United States.
EU airlines may fly between the United States and non-EU countries in the European Common Aviation Area, such as Switzerland.
All-cargo services enjoy broad rights, including seventh freedom rights.
London Heathrow was opened to competition from all U.S. and EU carriers.

Norway and Iceland joined the agreement in 2011.

Criticism

European airlines argued that the agreement favored U.S. carriers: U.S. airlines gained intra-EU rights linked to transatlantic services, while EU airlines gained no domestic U.S. rights and remained barred from controlling U.S. airlines. These questions shaped the phase two negotiations and remain part of transatlantic aviation diplomacy.