Ever heard of “fifth freedom flights”?
When you buy an international plane ticket, you can generally be assured that the airlines selling the tickets in a specific market will be from either of the two countries. Flights to the U.S. and France, for example, are generally operated by both American and French airlines.
These routes are designated by IATA as “Fifth Freedom” routes—that is, routes that begin in an airline’s home country, but stop in another country en route to a third country.
In the early days of long-haul aviation, it was common for airlines to operate far beyond the borders of their home countries. In the years after World War II, aircraft range was still limited, so many of the longest flights required stopovers en route. Passengers could fly Air India, for example, between North America and London, far from India itself. A London to Rome passenger might fly Qantas, the Australian airline. Even as late as the 2000s, passengers could fly Japan Airlines between Vancouver and Mexico City, or Cathay Pacific between Vancouver and New York City.
The flights had a purpose. When global air traffic demand was smaller, there weren’t enough passengers to fill daily flights to the United States from places like Bangkok, Taipei, or Seoul, so airlines like Pan Am would route them through Tokyo to ensure fuller flights across the Pacific. Pan Am did similar flights within Europe to gateways in London and Frankfurt.
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Today, with most aircraft types able to connect most points on earth without a stopover, and global passenger demand having grown enough to support nonstops from more cities, these routes have become fewer in number, but there are still a few out there. The benefit to these routes is that they’re often less trafficked, meaning fares can be more competitive, particularly in premium cabins.
South America is particularly fertile ground for fifth freedom flights. The route between São Paulo and Buenos Aires, for example, offers flights from a number of airlines, including Ethiopian, Turkish, SWISS, and Air Canada. From Rio de Janeiro, passengers can fly British Airways or Emirates to Buenos Aires. From Buenos Aires to Santiago, choose KLM for an exotic taste of a faraway land while traversing the Andes.
KLM operates a number of fifth freedom routes, including Singapore to Denpasar, Bali. While the local carriers on the route, Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia, often have many more daily flights, the KLM flight generally offers a lower fare in business class for the two-and-a-half hour flight to Bali.
It’s important to note that there is a necessary distinction for fifth freedom flights—they must have what are called local traffic rights to qualify. For example, KLM also flies between Aruba and Bonaire, but the airline doesn’t sell the flight on its own—it’s only for passengers flying between Aruba or Bonaire and Amsterdam.
Singapore Airlines once relied heavily on fifth freedom flying to connect Singapore with distant points in North America. Until ultra-long-haul aircraft entered the fleet in the late 2000s, all flights between Singapore and North America involved a stopover in another country. Today, with many more nonstops from the US to Singapore, the number of fifth freedom routes flown by Singapore has dwindled to just three: Los Angeles-Tokyo Narita; Milan-Barcelona; and Frankfurt-New York (JFK).
United Airlines has also been investing in new fifth freedom routes in recent years. The airline once had significant flying within Asia after it purchased Pan Am’s Pacific routes in 1985, which it had largely reduced in favor of nonstop flights directly to the United States. The last holdouts were United’s flights from Singapore to Hong Kong and Tokyo Narita, which ended in 2016 and 2017 when United introduced nonstop flights from San Francisco to Singapore.
Now, United offers flights from Tokyo Narita to Cebu, Philippines; Ulaanbataar, Mongolia; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and Koror, Palau. From Hong Kong, United offers flights to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City. On the latter route, United’s business class fares are generally lower than those offered by Cathay Pacific or Vietnam Airlines.
Emirates offers a significant number of fifth-freedom flights, ranging from flights across the Tasman Sea (Sydney-Christchurch), in Southeast Asia (Bangkok to Hong Kong, Siem Reap, and Da Nang), across the Atlantic (Athens-Newark; Milan-New York JFK; Barcelona-Mexico City), and South America (Miami-Bogotá).
Whatever the reason for choosing them, fifth freedom flights often offer better fares in premium cabins and a taste of a faraway land on an otherwise un-exotic local hop.
