Traffic Restrictions

Background

Air Traffic Restrictions are laws governing the carriage of customers on certain carriers and routes imposed by local Governments. Traffic Restrictions may also be referred to as Cabotage. Cabotage is the exclusive right of a country to control the air traffic within its borders; and as defined by US DOT, is the carriage of customers between any two ports within a particular country by a foreign airline carrier.

Overview

Flights that have traffic restrictions imposed are recognisable by the 'TR' indicator displayed next to the aircraft type in the availability display. Customers who are booked in breach of Traffic Restrictions may have their booking automatically cancelled or be denied boarding. It is imperative that Traffic Restrictions are checked and itineraries are booked in accordance with applicable rules.

Qantas Traffic Restrictions

Qantas is subject to Traffic Restrictions on a number of QF marketed routes, primarily where travel on the QF marketed flight does not originate or terminate in Australia; these include but not limited to:

  • Qantas Codeshare flights between Asia and UK/Europe
  • Qantas Codeshare flights within UK/Europe
  • Qantas Prime and Codeshare flights within North America
  • Qantas Codeshare flights operated by Jetstar

Qantas marketed flights must be booked in accordance with the applicable Traffic Restrictions. The risk on non-compliance is risk auto-cancellation of the booking or the customer is denied boarding.

Europe Example

DXB QF ROM

The traffic restriction that applies to QF8095 DXB ROM is:

  • Y - ONLINE CONNECTING TRAFFIC ONLY   
  • This means that the customer must have a QF international flight into the boardpoint DXB directly preceding the QF8095. 

USA Example

LAX QF JFK

The traffic restriction that applies to LAX - JFK is:

  • Q - INTL ONLINE CONNECTING OR STOPOVR TRAFFIC ONLY
  • Traffic Restriction applies to ON BOARD and OFF BOARD Points.
  • This means that the customer must have a QF international flight into/out of either the boardpoint LAX or offpoint JFK directly after or preceding QF11. This can be a connecting flight or a stopover.

Cuba

US Government restrictions exist on all itineraries involving travel to/from or via Cuba based on the purpose of travel. This means that an itinerary cannot include travel to/from or within US and travel to/from or via Cuba. Where an itinerary includes these sectors the US carrier will cancel all their flights without notice.

For Customers requesting travel to Cuba on Commercial bookings, there are no fares valid for ticketing on 081 stock therefore we are unable to assist with these bookings.

As a result of the US Government restrictions AA will not permit these flights on the oneworld products. The oneworld Sales Restrictions will apply.

Additionally, US nationals are restricted to travel to Cuba, and no Qantas office located in the US is permitted to sell or ticket travel to/from or via Cuba.

Non-US nationals who wish to travel to/from Cuba must make a separate booking not including travel to/from or via the US.

AA flights between the US and Cuba flights are currently not sellable in any interline channel or on any stock other than AA as the U.S government still has restrictions on travel to Cuba, based on purpose of travel. For example, the US still does not allow its citizens to travel for wholly touristic reasons. At this point in time AA will not include these flights in the oneworld products.