The principle of airline substantial ownership and effective control is one of the biggest impediments to the air transport industry growth. Legitimately included in the bilateral agreements since 1946 for national security reasons, States have maintained the principle over the years and used it as a protectionist tool, as well as a bargaining chip. Considering that liberalization and globalization concepts are already well-established in the biggest industrial sectors and a large number of cross-border investments occurs in most of the service sectors through mergers and acquisitions, the time is ripe to remove national restrictions on foreign investments from the airline industry. The aim of this book is to identify those factors that still justify the imposition of national ownership restrictions on airlines and to examine the prospects for change in the policies and regulatory regimes that support them.
