Intra-regional Cooperation and Air Cargo Liberalization Policy in Korea, China and Japan

한.중.일의 역내 항공화물운송 자유화정책과 협력중진방안

The 3 Northeast Asian countries of Korea, Japan and China have been stricter to each other than to other countries of out-region in air liberalization. The prominent reason of this intra-regional protective policy in air transportation seems to be the difference in competitive strength of their national flag carriers. As the 3 countries realize the importance of their mutual cooperation in the region, since China grows to be one of the leading economies in the world and the intra-regional trade and visitors increase tremendously, they are now taking the policy of intra-regional air liberalization more vigorously than before. Especially air cargo liberalization is easier than air passenger liberalization because they realize that the development of open economy is based on free flow of logistics regardless of the competitiveness of their national flag carriers. As Korea is the leading country in the region to promote air liberalization, this paper reviews the importance and growing trend of air cargo, analyzes current air liberalization policy between Korea, Japan and China and the initial effects of open sky in the routes of Shandung-Korea, and suggests the new policies of air liberalization to promote free flow of air logistics.