The European Common Aviation Area is a single market in aviation services. ECAA agreements were signed on 5 May 2006 in Salzburg, Austria between the EU and some external countries. It built upon the EU's acquis communautaire and the European Economic Area. The ECAA liberalises the air transport industry by allowing any company from any ECAA member state to fly between any ECAA member states airports, thereby allowing a "foreign" airline to provide domestic flights. On 9 June 2006 the ECAA agreement was signed by almost all of the 27 EU members, the European Union itself, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia as well as Kosovo. The last two EU member states to sign it were Slovakia and Latvia respectively on 13 June 2006 and 22 June 2006. In addition, Serbia signed on 29 June 2006 and Montenegro on 5 July 2006.
Common Aviation Area agreements (CAA)
Georgia signed a CAA on 2 December 2010 and Moldova signed on 26 June 2012. These CAA agreements are currently undergoing ratification. The first round of negotiations on an EU-Azerbaijan Common Aviation Area started in Baku on 24 January 2013. Ukraine had hoped to sign an agreement on a common aviation space in July 2016. Armenia began negotiations to join after a new Armenia-EU partnership agreement was signed in February 2017.
Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement (EMAA)
A similar system the agreements in the field of aviation is expected to be enacted with the Mediterranean partnership countries. The Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement was signed on 12 December 2006 with the Kingdom of Morocco, on 15 December 2010 with the Kingdom of Jordan, on 10 June 2013 with Israel. These EMAA agreements except with the Kingdom of Morocco are currently undergoing ratification. The negotiations with Tunisia started on 27 June 2013. On 9 October 2008 the Council of the European Union adopted a decision authorising the European Commission to open negotiations with Lebanon, and on 9 December 2008 adopted a decision authorising the European Commission to open negotiations with Algeria. The negotiations with Algeria have not started yet.
Because the UK has left the European Union, the UK is no longer part of the Common Aviation Area. Unless permission or new treaties with the UK are made, aviation to and from the UK may stop. There is a delay in this hard Brexit until end of 2020, because the brexit withdrawal agreement says that most EU rules continues to be valid for UK during 2020. However, EU has approved regulations 2019/494 and 2019/505 in order to secure air traffic between UK and EU plus EEA. Also, the British government has taken various steps to ensure the continuation of air travel, such as an open skies agreement with the United States of America. The British airline EasyJet which has many flights outside the UK has set up a subsidiary in Austria whilst keeping its headquarters in Luton, England.
