International Trade committee  Our agreements do not refer to regional or secondary airports or international hubs. In its other part, the Blue Sky policy indicates that it can be applied in a limited number of Canadian cities, but that it will do the choosing. If it is an “open skies” type of agreement, there

International Trade committee  Again, when we negotiate these agreements, we put in place a framework within which carriers make their own decisions. We don't have control over which services will be launched or, obviously, how much the fares will be, but our hope is that carriers will make use of the rights w

International Trade committee  The answer is yes. The policy has achieved these objectives, and we would be glad to share numbers with the committee.

International Trade committee  We take a number of considerations into account. For instance, when we develop our negotiating plan for the year, we receive a lot of input: the commercial interests of carriers and airports, international trade considerations, tourism considerations, foreign policy, security, an

International Trade committee  Not necessarily. It very much depends on the needs of the market at any particular point in time. Opportunities can arise out of the blue as well, which could be a reason why we would want to engage with a particular partner. But typically we want to make sure that we stay ahead

International Trade committee  Right, exactly. Very few countries in the world allow for cabotage. The U.S. does not allow for cabotage. We have looked at possibly creating a common North American aviation area in the future like they have in Europe, but there's no interest south of the border to go down tha

International Trade committee  We didn't explore it with the Americans. We did an analysis internally at Transport Canada—

International Trade committee  —a few years ago, and we were confident that it was not something that had a promising future at this point in time.

International Trade committee  Blue sky is the name of the policy, so it's the blue sky policy. Some people have said that the agreements negotiated under the policy are blue sky agreements, but what we mean by an open skies agreement, again, is very clear. It is defined in the policy in terms of what those ag

International Trade committee  The number 80 that we mentioned is the number of countries covered by the agreements that have been negotiated under the blue sky policy. But of course, before the blue sky policy was announced, we already had a lot of partners. So including the agreements that were negotiated be

International Trade committee  By default, it's going to be an open skies agreement, unless there are certain exceptions, if I can call them that, in the agreement. For instance, if we negotiated with a country where our carriers face very difficult “doing business” conditions, that's a reason why that country

International Trade committee  Are you referring to the increase in terms of the partners we have?

International Trade committee  In terms of the traffic that I mentioned, the 47-million one-way trips per year, that includes both inbound and outbound.

International Trade committee  More or less. Usually somebody who goes on a trip somewhere will come back to their point of origin, but not always. There are students who come here for several years, people who move to another country, and so on, so roughly speaking you could divide it by two. But the number

International Trade committee  We've seen benefits from our agreements throughout the country. Most big airports have received new services since the policy has been in effect. The top eight airports in Canada represent about 97% of the international traffic. Beyond those top eight airports, it's maybe not as