I saw the word 'cabotage' today, and it was entirely new to me. But there was a bit of indication that it may be more commonly used in the EU contries.

Has anyone ever heard of it?

I'd never heard of it, but juging by its definition at OneLook, Richard should be able to give you chapter and verse.

The One-look definition is not very informative, although accurate as far as it goes.

Cabotage air travel is travel within one country or state, where international agreements as regards fares and certain other things do not apply. Cabotage does not only apply within a country but also between territories owned by that country. So, a flight from Boston to Chicago is US cabotage and the airlines operating the route are not bound by international fare agreements (although there are far fewer of these than there used to be) and the same thing would apply to a flight between Boston and Honolulu, Hawaii being a US State even though not part of the continental USA.

Similarly, London to Gibraltar is UK cabotage, as Gibraltar is still a British colony.

When I started in travel there were far more British cabotage routes and there were strict rules about their use. For example, Cyprus was British cabotage and the fares between London and Cyprus were lower than fares to, say, Athens or Cairo. So people sought to reduce their fares by buying a London/Nicosia ticket and then buying a Nicosia/Cairo add-on. Of course, as airlines do, the carriers tried to prevent this, to the extent that they even checked passports to ensure that travellers returning from Nicosia to London had not taken a side-trip to Cairo. Had they done so then their tickets would have been withdrawn and they'd have to pay the excess fare required before being allowed return passage.

With the general liberalisation of air fares and routes (with the notable exception of the USA which does not allow foreign airlines to operate within its borders) the need to use such creative forms of fare construction has more or less gone.

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with the notable exception of the USA which does not allow foreign airlines to operate within its

Is the U.S. the only country?

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Originally posted by Kalleh:

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with the notable exception of the USA which does not allow foreign airlines to operate within its

Is the U.S. the only country?

Huh??? So how come Lufthansa lands at my local airport?

Asa,

You can get a Lufthansa flight abroad, or from abroad, but you can't fly to or from another US destination using Lufthansa, or any other foreign airline.

Well, first of all, it doesn't make a lot of difference, does it? I mean, do you think Lufthansa would like to fly from Madison, Wisconsin to Indianapolis, Indiana?

But I wondered if the U.S. really is the only country in the world to have that rule. I am skeptical about that. There are just too many countries.

Just a gut feeling that Elal is probably the only airline which flies within Israel.

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Huh??? So how come Lufthansa lands at my local airport?

Without going into a long posting about the various airline "freedoms", basically the freedom to fly between airports within one country is one which used to be jealously guarded by the governments of the countries concerned to protect their airlines against foreign competition. Although not the only country still to maintain this protection, the USA is the most important one.

US airlines are notoriously inefficient with huge, unionised labour forces and vast over-paid management teams and almost all of them are presently losing money - many being bankrupt and surviving only under Chapter 11. The last thing they want is a trim and efficient foreign carrier coming in and taking over all their plum US domestic routes - so no foreign carrier has "fifth freedom" rights within the USA.

Lufthansa, and many other foreign carriers, have lower level freedoms which allow them to carry passengers from their own countries to the USA and vice-versa, but they can only travel within the USA as part of an international journey and, in most cases, would not be allowed to carry passengers on the domestic portion. So, on its route San Francisco/Los Angeles/London BA is not allowed to pick up passengers in Los Angeles and drop them in San Francisco or vice versa.

Although there is much international pressure, as in so many of its trading practices, the USA tends towards a protectionist stance at present.

Do any US or non-EU airlines have fifth freedom rights within the EU?

I can't speak for all the EU without some research, but within the UK there is almost complete freedom.

One of the most profitable airlines operating in the UK is Ryanair - a foreign carrier (Irish, in fact).

I don't think there are any US carriers operating internally within the EU but I doubt that there would be many that would be able to take the financial risk at present.

I just noticed that Mrs. Bryne's dictionary includes cabotage, but mis-defines it as "coastal navigation". This may be an accurate alternate definition, but it misses the important points.