• However, a country may, by international agreement,

THE CONCEPT OF AIRSPACE

assume responsibility for controlling parts of
This article was in news on 3rd November 2019 in the
Hindu. For the other date-wise articles from the Hindu international airspace, such as those over the oceans.
from May 2019 onwards on the above pattern just drop o For instance, the United States provides air
a msg at [email protected] traffic control services over a large part of the
Pacific Ocean, even though the airspace is
• Context: The United Nations aviation watchdog,
international.
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), is
• Under the Geneva Convention on the High Seas
“not empowered to intervene” in the affairs of a
(1958) as well as under international customary law,
country and will examine inputs from both India and
the freedom of the high seas applies to aerial
Pakistan before it takes a decision to pursue the issue
navigation as well as to maritime navigation.
of denial of overflight to Indian Prime Minister’s aircraft
Vertical boundary
during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia.
• There is no international agreement on the vertical
• Article 3 of the Convention on International Civil
extent of sovereign airspace (the boundary between
Aviation signed at Chicago in December 1944, clearly
outer space—which is not subject to national
states that the treaty “shall be applicable only to
jurisdiction—and national airspace).
civil aircraft, and shall not be applicable to State
• Vertically, airspace ends where outer space
aircraft.”
begins.
• The treaty also underlines in Article 1 that signatories
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
to the convention have to recognise that “every State
• The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is
has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the
a UN specialized agency, established by States in
airspace above its territory.”
1944 to manage the administration and governance of
Analysis
the Convention on International Civil Aviation
Airspace
(Chicago Convention).
• Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled
• A basic principle of international air law is that every
by a country above its territory, including its
state has complete and exclusive sovereignty over
territorial waters.
the airspace above its territory, including its territorial
• It is not the same as aerospace, which is the general
sea.
term for Earth's atmosphere and the outer space in its
o The principle is restated in the Chicago
vicinity.
Convention on International Civil Aviation (1944).
• Airspace may be further subdivided into a variety of
• Under the Chicago Convention, contracting states
areas and zones, including those where there are
agree to permit aircraft registered in the other
either restrictions on flying activities or complete
contracting states and engaged in commercial non-
prohibition of flying activities.
scheduled flights to fly into their territory without prior
Horizontal boundary
diplomatic permission and, moreover, to pick up and
• By international law, the notion of a country's
discharge passengers, cargo, and mail, but in practice
sovereign airspace corresponds with the maritime
this provision has become a dead letter.
definition of territorial waters as being 12 nautical
• Members of ICAO, in order to comply with their
miles (22.2 km) out from a nation's coastline.
obligations under the Chicago Convention, have to
• Airspace not within any country's territorial limit is
make certain that such airports are open to aircraft of
considered international, analogous to the "high seas"
all other ICAO members under the same conditions
in maritime law.
as they are open to national aircraft.
• The Convention also exempts air fuels from tax.

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• The Convention provided for the sovereignty of Does ICAO approve world flight routes? If not, how
airspace above the territory of each state, together are these agreed?
with five freedoms (later expanded to nine by the • While ICAO doesn’t ‘approve’ world flight routes
addition of four unofficial freedoms) which govern the for international air traffic, it is instrumental to
freedom of states to operate air transport flights facilitating the cooperation and information needed to
(including the carriage of passengers, cargo and mail) do so.
across, into and within the airspace of other states. • Sovereign States, and not ICAO, are suitably
• Only the first two of these freedoms (see below) apply responsible for advising other States and aircraft
automatically to signatory states, the remainder being operators of any risks to civil aviation safety or
subject to national agreement. security which may arise from activities in their
sovereign territories or airspace.
Freedom Description
• States are similarly responsible for restricting aircraft

Right to overfly a foreign country without operations over their territories, whether completely or
1st. to various pre-determined flight levels, depending on
landing
the severity of the risk.
Right to refuel or carry out maintenance
2nd.
in a foreign country

Right to fly from one's own country to

3rd.
another

Right to fly from a foreign country to

4th.
one's own

Right to fly between two foreign

5th. countries during flights which begin or
end in one's own

Right to fly from one foreign country to

6th. another one while stopping in one's own
country

Right to fly between two foreign

7th. countries while not offering flights to
one's own country

Right to fly between two or more airports

8th. in a foreign country while continuing
service to one's own country

Right to fly inside a foreign country

9th. without continuing service to one's own
country

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