JT Aviation College, Kolkata
(Collaboration with MAKAUT, West Bengal)
BBA (Aviation Management) CBSC Structure
Semester – 4: Paper Code: BBA(AM) 404
Module: V Convention
Chapter - 2
The Paris Convention, 1919
The first passenger-carrying airline flight took-off in 1913
with the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. Before that time,
aircraft had been used to carry mail and other cargo.
With the start of World War I in 1914, aircraft were being
operated internationally to carry not only cargo, but also as
military assets.
The Paris Convention of 1919 (formally, the Convention
Relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation) was the first
international convention to address the political difficulties and
intricacies involved in international aerial navigation.
The international use of aircraft brought up questions
about air sovereignty. The arguments over air sovereignty at the
time factored into one of two main viewpoints:
● either no state had a right to claim sovereignty over the
airspace overlying its territory, or
● every state had the right to do so.
The Paris Convention of 1919 sought to determine this
question as part of the process of framing the convention's
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assumptions and it was decided that each nation has absolute
sovereignty over the airspace overlying its territories and waters.
The nations that signed the treaty were: Belgium, Bolivia,
Brazil, the British Empire, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Greece,
Guatemala, Haiti, the Hejaz, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia,
Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Siam, Czechoslovakia, and Uruguay.
Ultimately, the convention was ratified by 11 states,
including Persia, which had not signed it. The United States never
ratified it because of its linkage to the League of Nations. The
treaty came into force in 1922.
The convention was concluded under the auspices of
the International Commission for Air Navigation (forerunner
to ICAO). It attempted to reduce the confusing patchwork of
ideologies and regulations which differed by country by defining
certain guiding principles and provisions, and was signed
in Paris on October 13, 1919.
The following principles governed the drafting of the convention:
1. Each nation has absolute sovereignty over the airspace
overlying its territories and waters. A nation, therefore,
has the right to deny entry and regulate flights (both
foreign and domestic) into and through its airspace.
2. Each nation should apply its airspace rules equally to
its own and foreign aircraft operating within that
airspace, and make rules such that its sovereignty and
security are respected while affording as much
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freedom of passage as possible to its own and other
signatories' aircraft.
3. Aircraft of contracting states are to be treated equally
in the eyes of each nation's law.
4. Aircraft must be registered to a state, and they possess
the nationality of the state in which they are registered.
5. Restricted movement of military aircraft.
6. Established basic rules for airworthiness of aircraft
and pilot licenses.
7. Defined air navigation rules and established
international airways.
8. Defined rules for flights over foreign territories.
The Paris Convention was superseded by the Convention on
International Civil Aviation (also known as the Chicago
Convention).
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