The rights in the amendment facilitate the movement of goods throughout the world by providing air carriers greater flexibility to meet their cargo and express-delivery customers’ needs more efficiently. Specifically, the amendment allows U.S. air carriers to fly all-cargo services between Colombia and a third nation without needing to perform a commercial stop in the United States. Colombian air carriers have reciprocal rights to serve the United States on a seventh-freedom all-cargo basis. This amendment further expands our strong economic and commercial partnership with Colombia while creating new opportunities for airlines, exporters, and consumers. It fully opens the Colombian air cargo services market to U.S. carriers and represents one way in which the U.S. government is delivering for U.S. air carriers and American workers.
Open Skies agreements like the 2011 U.S.-Colombia Air Transport Agreement provide maximum operational flexibility worldwide for U.S. airlines and promote economic growth by increasing travel and trade, bolstering supply chains, enhancing productivity, and spurring high-quality job opportunities. Today’s signing highlights this year’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Open Skies international aviation policy.
Today, U.S. Embassy Bogota Chargé d’Affaires Francisco Palmieri and Colombian Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Marta Lucía Ramírez signed a protocol of amendment to the 2011 U.S.-Colombia Air Transport Agreement (the ATA) in Bogota. The amendment adds seventh-freedom traffic rights for U.S. and Colombian all-cargo air services to the ATA and will enter into force following an exchange of diplomatic notes. It has been applied on the basis of comity and reciprocity since it was initialed on December 14, 2018.
Information on U.S. aviation policy and our Open Skies air transport agreements is available on the Department of State’s website here: https://www.state.gov/civil-air-transport-agreements//
