Finland has made new air services agreements with Benin, Cameroon and El Salvador. In addition, arrangements for codeshare operations between airlines were agreed with Ethiopia, and negotiations for an air services agreement continued with Pakistan. The negotiations were held at the ICAO Air Services Negotiation event (ICAN2023) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 3 - 7 December 2023.
Air services agreements contain provisions on traffic rights, i.e. flights between states and often also connecting flights from the destination onwards. On Finland's side, airlines from any EU member state can be designated to operate flights under these agreements.
In accordance with the new agreements, flights are permitted to any town in the country of destination. The Cameroon agreement restricts the weekly frequencies to seven for passenger/combination flights and to five for cargo flights. The other agreements do not restrict the number of frequencies.
The principles of the new agreements are applied between the authorities even before they enter into force, which means that it would be possible to start the flights immediately. In all, Finland has air services agreements (in force or provisionally applied) with some 70 states.
Further information:
Leila Iikkanen, Legal Adviser, tel. +358 29 534 6039, leila.iikkanen(at)traficom.fi