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In spite of the extensive literature on the regulation of air transport services, until the development of the Quantitative Air Services Agreements Review (QUASAR) methodology no systematic review existed of the degree of liberalization granted through air services agreements. The chapter lays out QUASARs key features, and presents the main results its application has generated. It then elaborates on how the methodology could be further refined and extended to other segments of the air transport industry yet uncovered. Based on QUASAR, the chapter critically evaluates some commonly held beliefs about the liberalization of international passenger transport and then moves on to explore the technical feasibility of creating a liberal multilateral regime for air transport services. QUASAR has demonstrated that, although the air transport sector has experienced some liberalization over the past few years, this has been, overall, rather marginal. The skies are not truly open.

Recently, China has taken steps to open up its international air transport services at a higher level during its 14th Five-Year Period. As one step, a number of pilot free trade zones (PFTZs) have been launched with different tasks for foreign economic cooperation based on institutional innovation. Some cities in these zones have been chosen to develop airport economy by liberalization of the fifth freedom traffic right (FFTR). Considering the different economic situations between passenger and cargo market following the outbreak of the coronavirus, this chapter focuses on its implication of the FFTR for air cargo and airport economy in these cities. Some air service agreements (ASAs) between China and other countries have contained the arrangements on the FFTR. However, this study argues that such arrangements are too general and need further negotiation and policy support for practical utilization. FFTR liberalization may drive cargo growth and economic development in the cities which have gained such policy support, but it may also bring competitive pressure on Chinese airlines. Furthermore, the FFTR liberalization policies do not guarantee an immediate positive result in fostering airport economy, and much work is needed for better utilization of the FFTR in China.

This chapter reviews the history of regulation and deregulation in international air transport and discusses the positive impacts of deregulation and open skies on the tourism sector in the Asia Pacific region. The Hong Kong–Bangkok market was examined, which shows that the granting of the fifth freedom rights has given the two places sufficient air service provisions to build tourism. Future reforms in air transport such as relaxing ownership restrictions and expanding air freedoms rights are explored.

Air traffic resources mainly include two parts, namely, air traffic controller (ATC) and physical system resources, such as airspace. Reasonable assessment and effective management of ATC and airspace resources are the premise and foundation of ensuring the safety and efficiency of air traffic management systems. The previous studies focussed on subjective workload control and the statistics of control communication time; they revealed the lack of kinetic universality analyses of controlling actions. Although frequency distribution patterns were generated by controlling the timing sequence, the correlation between the controlling actions and terminal airspace (TMA) sector capacity was not revealed. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Thus, given the immeasurable complexity of controlling actions and statistical features of the controlling communications, a dynamical model of ATC was built in this study to identify the frequency distribution patterns generated by controlling the timing sequence. With the Directorate of Operational and Analysis Task method, TMA sector capacity was estimated through multiple linear regression analysis.

With data from the Kunming sector, the power exponent was calculated as 2.55, and the mathematical expectation was determined to be 47.21 s. The correlation between controlling actions (workload) and sector capacity was obtained. Finally, the data were integrated in the verification of the model and its feasibility.

Airspace capacity is an index to measure the ability of the airspace system to deliver services to meet the air traffic demand. A scientific and accurate forecast of airspace capacity is a foundation of the effective management and rational allocation of the airspace resources. The study is of great significance for the efficient use of airspace resources, controller resources.

This chapter reviews the effects of air transport liberalization, and investigates the roles played by airport-airline vertical arrangements in liberalizing markets. Our investigation concludes that liberalization has led to substantial economic and traffic growth. Such positive outcomes are mainly due to increased competition and efficiency gains in the airline industry, and positive externalities to the overall economy. Liberalization allows airlines to optimize their networks, and thus may introduce substantial demand and financial uncertainty to airports. Vertical arrangements between airlines and airports may offer a wide range of benefits to the parties involved, yet such arrangements could also lead to airline entry barriers which reduce the effects of liberalization. Three approaches have been developed to model the effects of liberalization in complex market conditions, which include the analytical, econometric and computational network methods. These approaches should be selectively utilized in policy studies on liberalization.