b) governments of the countries that you may want to
fly to are very protective of their airspace, national airlines, and fare paying passengers.
Yes, governments around the world not only regulate
who flies where and how often (and sometimes with what fare), they regulate where
you can and can't pick up passengers, and in some well publicized cases will resort
to hostilities if an airplane is carrying out actions that are inconsistent with its
livery and flight plan. Also, as we all know from our morning commute etc., everyone
always wants to be in the same place at the same time, and the same is true with airlines.
So at some busy places we need the traffic cops (FAA/CAA etc.) to come up with some
rules as to who gets to be there. Think of it like a parking slot, both in terms of
availability and timing.
Fortunately, many thousands of people around the world
in Brussels, Washington D.C. and Tokyo (to name a few of the heavyweights) are gainfully
employed in simultaneously confusing the issues, and making sense out of all of this.
Also many countries, including the U.S., overtly seek "open-skies" so every-one can
compete wherever it is economically feasible.
Remember that dinky little Singapore, miles from anywhere,
with very open-skies, has the world's consistently best airline, and one of the best
airports I've ever visited. To me this suggests that open-skies can be a pretty good
thing.
