The Agenda for Freedom is a process launched by Mr Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), to give airlines the commercial freedom to operate like any other global business. 

Out of date rules

The commercial aspects of international aviation are governed by a set of antiquated rules.  They limit market access and close the door to international equity capital.  As a result, airlines cannot use, for instance, tools like cross border mergers and acquisitions to structure themselves for optimum commercial efficiency, nor can they tap foreign private equity.  Other global industries do not face such restrictions. 
 
As an industry, airlines have traditionally failed to recover the cost of their capital, let alone produce interesting returns.  At a historic return rate of 0.3%, the industry is anything but profitable. And yet, it is the lynchpin of globalisation and a fundamental factor of economic growth and job creation.  A financially healthy airline industry can only benefit both national and the global economies.

Sounding the alarm

At the IATA Annual General Meeting in June 2008, Mr Bisignani sounded an alarm bell.  Against the backdrop of an unprecedented surge in fuel costs, he warned that such commercial restrictions could represent a threat to the very survival of many airlines.  The time had come to grab the bull by the horns and address this issue.  The ensuing financial crisis and resulting drop in passenger demand, as well as its devastating effects on the industry, only confirm the urgent need to remove these barriers.      

He therefore called upon liberal-minded governments to get together at an Agenda for Freedom Summit to find ways of actually breaking down the barriers that stand in the way of allowing such commercial freedom to become a reality. The first Summit was held in Istanbul on 25-26 October 2008 and was attended by 14 States and the European Commission.

Looking to the future

It resulted in some innovative proposals for greater liberalisation. Since the Summit, IATA has been working with the participating States to turn those proposals into a concrete Multilateral Statement of Policy Principles that outlines how States interpret bilateral air services agreements as liberally as possible. The aim is for the States to formally sign up to the Multilateral Statement at a second Summit to be held before the end of 2009. IATA is also creating a repository of liberalisation best practices.