Ethiopia signed an Air Service bilateral agreement with Portugal last week. The two countries initially signed the agreement on December 7, 2016 in Bahamas during the 9th International Civil Aviation Negotiation. The accord is aimed at boosting aviation services in the two countries.

Bilateral Air Service agreements allow an airline to operate international services to another country. These agreements contain provisions on traffic rights, the number of flights that can be operated or passengers that can be carried between the bilateral partners, number of airlines the bilateral partners can nominate to operate services and the ownership criteria airlines must meet to be designated under the bilateral agreement, tariffs, and many other clauses addressing competition policy, safety and security.

Source: Fana BC and https://infrastructure.gov.au/aviation/international/bilateral_system.aspx.