AIRSPACE

AIRSPACE

TOPIC: IR

Context- The closure of Russian airspace for US-based, Canadian and European airlines has meant flights between some major destinations in these jurisdictions and India have become longer.

Concept-

Airspace:

• Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere.
• It is not the same as aerospace, which is the general term for Earth’s atmosphere and the outer space in its vicinity.
• Airspace may be further subdivided into a variety of areas and zones, including those where there are either restrictions on flying activities or complete prohibition of flying activities.

International laws on airspace:

• By international law, a state “has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory”, which corresponds with the maritime definition of territorial waters as being 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) out from a nation’s coastline.
• Airspace not within any country’s territorial limit is considered international, analogous to the “high seas” in maritime law.
• International Airspaces are governed under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for operational control.
• There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace.