The Development of Landing Rights in Malaysia

Abstract

Landing rights have been in the centre of negotiations of liberating the air transport services for decades. Within the recent years more and more states have become involved in bilateral or plurilateral agreements in the attempt to promote free air. With the advent of Open Skies a new frame for grant of landing rights is being employed. They facilitate grant of Landing Rights in many aspects. Amongst states welcoming the new trend of liberalization of air transport are the two neighbouring states of Malaysia and Indonesia. They have adhered to promoting free air by getting involved in many bilateral and plurilateral agreements. Open skies will be reviewed in this article along with a background on the grant of landing rights prior to the current open skies model. Agreements that were means of exchanging landing rights between Malaysia and Indonesia will then be reported to figure how for they have gone in liberalizing landing rights. Finally, the two major Malaysian airlines (MAS and Air Asia) will be subjected to scrutiny to assess their performance in general before and after open skies entered the region.