Toward a Single Aviation Market in ASEAN: Regulatory Reform and Industry Challenges

The ASEAN Single Aviation Market or Open Skies project aims to liberalize the air transport industry in ASEAN by 2015. However, the project faces significant obstacles, including non-acceptance by key member states and an incomplete agenda that excludes more ambitious relaxations to market access and ownership and control rules. The ASEAN states’ failure to forge a truly single market and a common negotiating position risks disadvantaging their airlines visà- vis competitors from larger unified markets such as China.