So imagine a French-registered aircraft flying passengers from London to… — Page 28, Lesson 50

Let’s start with cabotage, because it’s a word you’ll see in air law and it sounds more complicated than it is. Cabotage is defined as the transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country by a vessel or aircraft registered in another country or State. So imagine a French-registered aircraft flying passengers from London to Manchester. That’s transport between two points in the same country — the UK — by an aircraft registered in another State — France. That is cabotage. Now, the key rule: most countries refuse cabotage. They don’t want foreign carriers flying domestic routes inside their borders. But there’s an important exception in the European Union. An EU State may not refuse cabotage by another EU State. So within the EU, a carrier from one member State is allowed to operate domestic services inside another member State. That’s the contrast to remember — general rule is refusal, EU rule is permission between member States. Now let’s move to the next topic, which is Customs and Excise, and Immigration. This is about what happens at borders, even in the air. The first concept here is facilitation. Under international law, the imposition of customs tariffs — that’s taxes on goods coming into a country — and the prohibition of the importation of proscribed items — that’s banned or forbidden goods — is allowed. So a State is legally permitted to control what comes into its territory. Now, to let Contracting States maintain their national Customs and Excise regulations, there’s a requirement placed on international flights. A Contracting State is a State that has agreed to the international treaty, in this context the Chicago Convention. The rule is this: international flights are required to make the first point of landing in a Contracting State at a recognized international airport which provides customs, health and immigration facilities. So the very first airport you touch down at in that country must be one that’s set up to handle customs, health checks, and immigration. In the UK, these airports are known as customs airports. Now here’s where the EU changes things again. Within the EU, the removal of restrictions to free trade now allows flights from one EU State to another to make the first point of landing at a non-customs aerodrome — that’s an airfield without customs facilities — providing certain rules are observed. So normally you’d have to land at a customs airport first, but inside the EU, because of free trade, you can land at a non-customs aerodrome as your first point of landing, as long as you follow those rules. Those rules are explored in the section of the manual concerning Facilitation. And separately, other rules apply to immigration. So to tie it together: cabotage is about who can fly domestic routes, and facilitation is about where you must land to clear customs and immigration. The EU is the big exception in both cases — it allows cabotage between member States, and it allows first landing at non-customs aerodromes between member States.