Pool Agreements

“Pool agreement(s)” is an expression used in Air Law to identify different forms of collaboration between airlines, from Route Pools to global alliances and other currently existing broader forms of co-operation between air carriers. Attention is focused on the specific purposes that induce airlines to cooperate, as well as the reasons that determine the change in the forms and purposes of aggregation: in particular, it is envisaged the deep impact of the liberalisation process initiated following the adoption of the US Airline Deregulation Act 1978 and the profound changes, in terms of increased competitiveness, that have taken place in the air transport market, also thanks to the subsequent removal of most of the limits that hindered the use of the code-sharing instrument for the exercise of fifth freedom rights, within traditional Air Service Agreements (ASAs). In more recent times, increasingly strong forms of cooperation between air carriers raise more than one question about the need to ensure effective protection of users of air transport services.