The EU, USA, Chile, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland and the UAE have signed a pact to liberalize international air travel, principally by eliminating the bilateral agreement framework. No surprise who most of these signatories are (given the business model of many of their airlines), but the fact that they represent 60% world air travel makes it likely this movement will prevail.

http://www.freightnet.com/release/4382.htm

The policy principles address three main areas:

Freedom to access capital markets: States agreed on principles that would open the possibility for airlines to access global capital markets. This would be achieved with an agreement not to exercise bilateral rights that could allow them to block international services from airlines with non-national ownership structures. States also agreed to consider the possibility of a multilateral agreement to waive ownership restrictions.

Freedom to do business: States agreed on principles that seek to reduce restrictions on market access and to expedite the further opening of markets in future bilateral negotiations.

Freedom to price services: States agreed on principles that would allow greater freedom to price airline services in line with market realities.

While these policy principles are non-binding, they are an important statement of common government intention among the most active countries driving global aviation policy. The document notes specifically that the signatories “recognize the importance of promoting compatible regulatory approaches and reducing the potential for conflicts” and the intention to use the policy principles to guide “implementation of existing air service agreements and our approach to the negotiation of new or amended air services agreements in the future”.