AIRSPACE
- March 5, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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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.