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In 2013 the SEA Group, within the strategies adopted to develop traffic at the Milan airports, confirmed its commitment to the drawing up and review of a number of bilateral agreements which govern access to the non-EU international air transport market. In particular, in 2013 new bi-lateral agreements were signed with South Korea, increasing frequencies and extending fifth freedom rights to all cargo airlines and with Egypt for the increase of passenger flight frequencies. A historic first aeronautic agreement was signed between Italy and Ecuador for the liberalisation of passenger and cargo traffic, potentially significant in the medium-term considering the high O&D (Origin & Destination) traffic between the two countries and an agreement was reached with Sri Lanka which extends the code share faculty. Finally, two new major agreements were also signed: one with Qatar, increasing operable frequencies, and the other with the Philippines, with an extensive liberalisation of bi-lateral aeronautic relations in terms of frequencies, destinations and assignable airlines. The activities focused on facilitating the development of airline, passenger and cargo services which can benefit from fifth freedom traffic rights, concerning transiting flights typically from Asian airports with a final destination on the American continent, are considered a significant, distinctive and innovative feature of the SEA strategy in relation to the extension of traffic rights to foreign airlines. The inclusion of these fifth freedom traffic rights within the Bilateral Agreements is now quite a common practice among the majority of European Union countries, which have signed comprehensive agreements concerning these rights with a wide range of non-EU states. Highlighting the extent of work carried out in this regard, we cite the fifth freedom traffic rights awarded to Emirates, which launched a new daily passenger service on the Milan/New York route, originating from Dubai, in addition to the authorisation granted to Qatar Airways for a new bi-weekly cargo flight on the Milan/Chicago route from Doha.
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