An unusual thing occurred in Canada a couple of weeks ago. The top politicians of Canada’s three western provinces – British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan – penned an editorial in the country’s national Globe & Mail newspaper calling for ‘open skies’. The editorial was timed to coincide with a gathering of business interests, government officials and politicians at the 2009 British Columbia International Open Skies Summit.

Now while it may seem like a ‘no-brainer’ – particularly from an Asian perspective – to want to create freer air passenger and cargo traffic through Canada’s skies, the situation is of course, more complicated. Beholden to unions, outdated ideologies, parochial regionalism, or wrapped up in self-absorbed petty interests; the greater good has often gotten chucked out with the bathwater by politicians.

As the three Premiers note, Western Canada sits at a unique global crossroads as the closest link between North America and the rapidly growing economies of Asia.

The realisation of that fact translated a few years back to a number of initiatives, largely encapsulated in the Pacific Gateway Strategy.

The result was a long overdue upgrading of seaports, airports, highways, railways, border crossings and so on, along with a marketing campaign, all with the aim of capturing a bigger slice of the thriving transpacific trade lane.

The real heart of the matter lies in the fact, that while the western Premiers have embraced the concept of opening up their skies, the decision making lies with the federal government’s Transport Canada bureaucracy some 2,000 km east in Ottawa.

Much of Canada’s historical air agreements have been based on restrictive Air Service Agreements. Of the 88 countries Canada has air agreements with, only a paltry eight are true open skies agreements. Cargo luckily, fairs better with 33, but let’s not forget that substantial cargo is carried in the bellies of passenger aircraft.

The reason for this has long been obvious and was even put down in black and white in a provincial government report: Canadian officials fear the national ‘flag’ carrier will lose business to foreign carriers. Indeed, they’re probably right, but isn’t this what competition is supposed to do. The best product for the best price wins the day. Should Air Canada be worried about competing with Singapore Airlines – you better believe it (and recognition of that is probably what guided Canada in signing only a limited air rights agreement with Singapore last year).

Airlines are not countries and they don’t represent countries – the notion of a flag carrier, aside from government regulations stating it as such, is purely a quaint footnote of nostalgia. Airlines are businesses, period.

The sooner governments – including Canada’s – truly understand that and let airlines get on with the difficult business of running their business, the better off consumers will be, whether they be passengers, consumers of goods, or supply chain stakeholders.

The longer it takes Canadian officials to get over their irrational fear, the further the country will be pushed onto the sidelines of global trade, particularly as the US takes centre field in the game of open skies.

As an example, a recent study by the International Institute of Transport and Logistics found that a full open-skies agreement with Japan alone, would increase passenger traffic by 16 per cent, reduce fares by more than 10 per cent and bring in an additional CND$55 million for Canada’s tourism industry. Not small change.

As the three Premiers succinctly put it in their editorial: “Open-skies agreements are simply the right thing to do in today’s interconnected, global, and open tradebasedeconomy.”