Legendary Route · Air Law
Fifth Freedom Flights Explained
_at_Frankfurt_Airport.jpg?width=1600)
You can book a Singapore Airlines flight from New York to Frankfurt, an American city to a German one, on an airline from neither country. You can fly Ethiopian Airlines between Dublin and Washington. These aren’t booking glitches. They’re called fifth freedom flights, and they exist because of rules written in Chicago in 1944.
The freedoms of the air
Near the end of the Second World War, governments met in Chicago to agree how international civil aviation would work afterwards. The result, the Convention on International Civil Aviation (usually called the Chicago Convention), laid the groundwork for a set of rights known as the freedoms of the air. Countries grant these rights to each other’s airlines, one agreement at a time.
The first few are simple. The first freedom lets an airline fly over another country without landing. The second lets it land there for fuel or repairs without picking anyone up. The third and fourth let it carry passengers from its own country to another and back. Those cover almost every flight you’ve ever taken.
The fifth freedom goes further. It lets an airline pick up passengers in one foreign country and fly them to another foreign country, as long as the route starts or ends in its home country.
The sequence
How a fifth freedom route works: Singapore Airlines SQ25/26
Singapore
HomeHome base of the airline
Frankfurt
Foreign 1First foreign stop; passengers get on and off
New York
Foreign 2Seats between Frankfurt and New York are sold too
Why airlines want them
For an airline, a fifth freedom route can fill seats that would otherwise fly empty. A long journey such as Singapore to New York is extremely long to fly nonstop. Stopping in Frankfurt and selling the Frankfurt–New York leg as its own flight earns money from a stop the aircraft might need anyway.
Ethiopian Airlines is one of the biggest users of fifth freedom rights. It has flown routes such as Dublin–Washington, Lomé–Newark and Abidjan–New York, and in Asia via Bangkok to Hong Kong and Jakarta. Its home base, Addis Ababa, sits more than 2,000 metres up, where the thin air limits how much a fully loaded jet can carry on take-off. Stopping on the way to the US or Asia can let the aircraft carry a fuller load, and the extra stop becomes a business in its own right.
Why there aren’t more of them
Every fifth freedom route needs approval from the governments involved, and they don’t hand it out freely. Local airlines often oppose the idea, because a foreign carrier on “their” route means more competition. So these flights are usually the result of years of negotiation between countries.
For passengers, they can be a real treat: a long-haul airline’s widebody aircraft and cabin service on what might otherwise be a basic short-haul trip. It’s worth checking for them when you’re booking. Sometimes the most interesting flight between two cities belongs to an airline from somewhere else entirely.
See also: how airline alliances let carriers share routes without merging.
Sources & Further Reading
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a fifth freedom flight?
A flight on which an airline carries paying passengers between two countries that are both foreign to it, as part of a route that starts or ends in its home country. Singapore Airlines selling seats from New York to Frankfurt on its way to Singapore is a classic example.
Where do the freedoms of the air come from?
They grew out of the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation, known as the Chicago Convention, and are granted country by country through air service agreements.
How many freedoms of the air are there?
Nine are commonly described, from the basic right to fly over a country without landing up to the right to fly domestic routes inside another country.
Are fifth freedom flights good for passengers?
Often, yes. They can bring a long-haul airline’s widebody aircraft and service standards to a shorter route, sometimes at competitive fares.
Why don’t more airlines fly fifth freedom routes?
Because each one needs permission from the governments involved, and local airlines often lobby against new competitors on routes they already fly.