The Canadian Airports Council (CAC) lauded the premiers of the three western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan for their endorsement of the economic benefits of ‘open skies’ through the formal signing of a joint declaration.

The three politicians signed the ‘Declaration on Open Skies’ at the 2009 British Columbia International Open Skies Summit in Vancouver. The document commits the provinces to advance research and communication activities that will result in more open skies agreements between the federal government and other nations.

The CAC said: “As Canada’s three premiers today acknowledged, Canada’s unique geographic position in the north gives our country a tremendous opportunity to serve as a gateway from Asia and Europe to the Americas. But we are leaving valuable air links on the table. As the prime minister said just last week, we must redouble our efforts to keep trade flowing.”

“These three provinces made four bold commitments to promoting open skies. As a primary stakeholder in the process, the CAC commits to engage with these and other provinces in this endeavour,” said CAC chairman, Barry Rempel.

“We acknowledge some tremendous work that has been done by our government in liberalisation with several particularly important trade and tourism markets,” said Rempel. “But with many other countries around the world, our government is slow or reluctant to opening up market access. Canadian consumers, the tourism sector and the business community all suffer as a result.”

The problem is that even though more than 80 countries have some form of bilateral agreement with Canada, such as recently improved agreements with New Zealand, South Africa and the European Union, only eight have the kind of unfettered access that open skies is predicated on.