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The Qatar Aviation Aeropolitical and Regulatory Summit is a high level forum dedicated to addressing the latest developments in aviation regulation, both within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and globally.

It will be CAPA’s first aeropolitical event, bringing together airline executives, chief legal officers and senior counsels, aviation law firms and government officials.

For an industry as global as the airline business, it seems impossible that there could be major constraints on international cooperation and national ownership. But there is a growing belief in the airline industry that the 70 year old provisions restricting the foreign ownership and control of airlines are archaic and should be significantly liberalised - or abolished.

Open skies agreements have paved the way for increasing liberalisation and removed capacity constraints in many bilateral and multilateral aviation markets; innovative airlines have resorted to creative forms of experimentation to circumvent ownership and control rules. These have taken many forms, including cross border equity purchases/JVs in Southeast Asia and Latin America and multinational ownership within the EU.

Any change in such a longstanding system is always likely to generate pushback from some incumbent operators who are unwilling or unable to adapt. In many cases, national governments have however adopted more holistic policies which recognise the wider benefits of aviation, revising the role of flag carriers in their home markets. There are however exceptions, such as Canada, as well as some European and other governments.

These standouts may be influential as two major multilateral agreements are likely to be reviewed in 2019, in the post Brexit environment as the UK is forced to renegotiate individual air services agreements within Europe, as well as a new UK-US agreement that would cover the trans-Atlantic market.

Meanwhile, the EU-Qatar and EU-ASEAN comprehensive aviation agreements have the potential to create a different atmosphere in the regulatory climate. These negotiations are not without their challenges.

As the EU and GCC group of nations embark on talks to increase market access, dissenting voices worry about opening up EU skies to the Gulf super-connectors. Yet in many ways the Middle East Big 3 have not been as much of a threat as originally portrayed, in some cases forging deep partnerships with longer established airlines.

The CAPA summit will seek to tap into some of the dynamic changes taking place in the regulatory environment, as key industry and government figures address:

• Open skies in key markets – major trends in aviation regulation around the world
• Overview of aviation’s “archaic” bilateral regime and solutions for bringing the industry into the modern era
• Aviation policy among Middle East nations, including the ongoing progress of intraregional agreements, and the EU-GCC and EU-Qatar air services negotiations
• The impact of changing airline business models, new aircraft technology and airport/airspace capacity constraints on international air service negotiations
• The future of open skies in the EU-UK market and across the transatlantic as Brexit comes into effect
• The role of ASEAN Open Skies in Southeast Asia: a mechanism for overcoming ownership restrictions. The future role of cross-border JV as the skies liberalise in Southeast Asia?
• African liberalisation and progress of the Single African Air Transport Market
• Issues raised by the US Big 3 White Paper; ownership and control limitations
• Spotlight on the markets of India and China
• Airport perspectives on the regulatory environment
• Environmental regulation

This is an event not to be missed! We invite all industry leaders to join CAPA in Qatar to engage in dynamic discussions and meet with senior decision makers from airlines and government.

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