Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol - connecting a vast European market of 500 million people to the rest of the world
Wednesday 12, May 2010
Anniversary of the historic declaration by Robert Schuman, the founding document of European integration, May 9th is Europe Day, celebrated since 1985 in all Member States of the European Union. The construction of a single European market which enabled, among others, Air France and KLM to merge in 2004 to become a leading global airline. The two airlines have since built a dual global network structured around two hubs - Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol.
The two hubs enable Air France and KLM passengers from all over Europe to connect with long-haul flights to over 120 destinations. In this way, from its hub at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air France can, for example, operate three daily flights to Tokyo and six daily flights to New York, including one by A380, as well as two daily flights to Shanghai.
The stages of the liberalization of European airspace
To accompany the creation of the internal European market, the liberalization of European airspace, planned in three stages, began in 1987 and was
fully implemented in 1997:
1st stage, 1987
The liberalization of air transport began with a series of initial measures, for example, limiting the right of national governments to oppose the introduction of new
fares.
2nd stage, 1992
Whereas until then there were national constraints of ownership and control, in 1993 the concept of "community carrier" was born. From then on, an airline that
held a license issued by a member state obtained traffic rights on almost all European Union routes while remaining free to set its fares.
3rd stage, 1997
The national domestic markets were fully open to competition: all carriers registered in the EU could operate with complete freedom in terms of fares and capacity.
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