New Zealand negotiating open skies agreements to attract air services, even without reciprocity

New Zealand has negotiated 12 bilateral agreements in the past 18 months as the government moves to implement its new International Air Transport Policy announced in Aug-2012. This places emphasis on establishing open skies agreements with key markets even if the offer is not reciprocated. To that end the government has negotiated the new or expanded bilateral agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, French Polynesia and Iceland.

Negotiations have also been held recently with Papua New Guinea while talks with Vietnam and Thailand are planned in the near future.

New Zealand Ministry of Transport GM of Aviation and Maritime, Bruce Johnson said at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit in Sydney on 07-Aug-2013 that the policy has a large focus on capacity and a strong commitment to open skies agreements where possible. "But [the policy] has also gone further than that and said where open skies can't be agreed then we will agree to whatever is good for New Zealand. And if that means we don't get reciprocity, then so be it."