Cabotage Case

Cabotage law is a very important concept that deserves .Cabotage is derived from the French word ‘caboter’ which means sailing along the coast/coastal waters. The term was first applied in shipping to denote traversing through a country’s coastal/territorial waters at a time when rights over waters were not as formalized as today and cabotage meant allowing a foreign ship to ferry passengers/goods between two points on a country’s coast.

With the development of Air and road travel, cabotage came to be used widely for any means of transport i.e. a ship/truck/plane plying between two points within a foreign country carrying goods/passengers between the two points. The right to cabotage in aviation is rarely granted as it is often seen as essential to growth of domestic operators.

The eighth freedom of air often referred to as “conservative cabotage” is the right granted to a foreign carrier to carry/drop passengers/goods between two points within the country for a flight originating in the home country. An e.g. would be a flight from Paris being allowed to take on and drop off passengers between Delhi & Bangalore for a PARIS-DELHI-BANGALORE flight. Australia-New Zealand’s “Single Aviation Market” agreement is an example of this.

The ninth freedom of air, also called cabotage, does away with the restriction of the flight having to originate in the home country and thus allows foreign carriers to fly only between the domestic routes. The European Union being the best example of this where airlines registered under EU law have cabotage rights within all members states.