Fifth Freedom Flights Are an Airline Loophole Worth Knowing About

On Monday, Emirates announced its latest route: a flight from Singapore to Penang, Malaysia, which will launch in April. But Emirates, one of the top airlines in the world, is based in Dubai, not Singapore or Malaysia—so how is it allowed to fly between those two nations? This type of route is called a fifth freedom flight, and can hold huge advantages for fliers.

Fifth freedom flights carry passengers between two countries that are different from the home base of the airline operating the flight. These types of routes are allowed as long as the flight begins or ends in the airline’s home country. (The first leg of Emirates’ Singapore to Penang route begins in Dubai.)

Another example is KLM’s flights from its home base of Amsterdam to Santiago, Chile, with a stop in Buenos Aires . It can sell tickets from Amsterdam to either South American city, but also solely between Buenos Aires and Santiago. That segment is a fifth freedom flight, because KLM is a Dutch airline selling tickets to passengers between two cities outside of the Netherlands. Watch This

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Large Auto Bottom Top And here’s a secret only savvy fliers know: Fifth freedom flights are a key to finding overlooked frequent flier award seats on certain flights around the world. How airlines get a fifth freedom flight approved Created during the Chicago Convention, a meeting responsible for many of today’s aviation norms, fifth freedom routes can involve lengthy negotiations, since three countries are involved, but if approved, they can be a boon for international airlines looking to substantiate a new, long-distance flight by filling the aircraft with an extra stop along the way. For decades, multi-stop flights (affectionally called “milk runs”) were the norm, at least until more fuel-efficient, longer-range aircraft were developed. Why do airlines operate them? These fifth freedom flights help an airline fly to more international cities economically. For example, the aforementioned KLM flight between Amsterdam and either Buenos Aires or Santiago may not be commercially viable for KLM to operate two independent flights on such a long distance. In addition, it is not […]

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