Your feedback will ensure the Regulation continues to support compliance with our bilateral air services arrangements.
Why we want your input
The current Regulation is due to expire on 1 April 2026. Your input will ensure the updated regulation continues to efficiently and effectively support our bilateral air services arrangements and related other matters.How you can voice your opinion
You can upload a written submission by clicking the ‘Have Your Say’ button below or email your submission to internationalaviation@infrastructure.gov.au.What will be the outcome of this consultation?
Your feedback will inform the review and remake of the Regulation, which we are working to complete by the end of 2025. This will provide continuity for international airlines operating in the 2026 Northern Summer international airline timetable period. Transitional arrangements will be included to provide certainty and minimise the impact upon industry.The Issue
The Air Navigation Regulation 2016is due to sunset on 1 April 2026. The Regulation creates a framework for ensuring compliance with bilateral air services arrangements. This is achieved through a system of licensing, data collection and the approvals of timetables for international air services. A range of other issues relating to Australia's implementation of the Convention of International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention) are implemented by the Regulation.
We are reviewing the Regulation to ensure it remains fit-for-purpose and continues to support an efficient, sustainable, competitive, safe and secure aviation system.
The Regulation covers:
- The collection of statistical information from aircraft owners and operators by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Research Economics (BITRE). The Regulation enables BITRE to respond to requests for data from the International Civil Aviation Organisation in accordance with the Chicago Convention (Part 2).
- A framework for the licensing of scheduled international air services. This includes the application requirements for granting of an international airline licence; the granting, refusal, variation, suspension or cancellation of a licence; the duration and condition of a licence which includes compliance with other aviation related regulatory frameworks; and the ongoing provision of compliance declarations (Part 3).
- A tariffs (price) mechanism for international air transport services as required by some foreign governments and consistent with provisions in our bilateral air services arrangements (Part 4).
- The approval, variation, suspension or cancellation of timetables or scheduled international air services to ensure services are operated consistently with the commercial entitlements granted under bilateral air services arrangements. This includes offences relating to operating air services without an approved timetable and advertising services without specific qualifications (Part 5).
- Other international and miscellaneous matters, including smoking on an aircraft; exemptions of certain aircraft parts and equipment from seizure on patent claims; directions in relation to certain airports and aerodromes; the production of documents when required; and the protection of certain rights (Parts 6 and 7).
We are seeking feedback from aviation stakeholders on parts of the Regulation that could be updated or improved. Your input will help shape our future regulatory framework and ensure it reflects current and emerging needs.
We may also incorporate into the Regulation relevant aviation data initiatives outlined in the Aviation White Paper and will consult on these initiatives separately.
Relevant documentation
Participate
We invite you to tell us your views on this topic.
Please include:
- contact name
- organisation name, if applicable
- contact details, including telephone number, postal and email addresses
- confirmation whether or not your submission can be made public—published—or kept confidential.
All submissions to be made public need to meet the Digital Service Standard for accessibility. Any submission that does not meet this standard may be modified before being made public.
If your submission is to be made public, please ensure you do not include any personal information that you don't want to be published.
If your submission is confidential, please ensure each page of the submission is marked as confidential.
Please click on the 'Have your say now' button below to upload your submission.
Alternatively please email your completed template submission to internationalaviation@infrastructure.gov.au.
Privacy collection notice
Your submission, including any personal information supplied, is being collected by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts ("the department") in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.
Use
The department may use your submission to inform consideration of issues relating to the update of the Air Navigation Regulations 2016.
Disclosure
The department may publish your submission as explained below. Otherwise your submission will not be disclosed unless authorised or required by law.
Contacting you
The department may use your contact information to make further contact with you about your submission and the consultation process.
Publication
Unless marked confidential (see below) submissions (including the author's name) may be published in part or full on the department's website or in any public response by the department. When publishing, the department will redact any personal contact details of the author.
Confidentiality
Confidential submissions will not be published and will only be disclosed in the following circumstances:
- in response to a request by a Commonwealth Minister;
- where required by a House or a Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia;
- where necessary in the public interest; or
- where authorised or required by law.
Submissions will only be treated as confidential if they are expressly stated to be confidential. Automatically generated confidentiality statements or disclaimers appended to an email do not suffice for this purpose. If you wish you make a confidential submission, you must indicate this by ensuring your submission is clearly marked confidential. Even if a submission is not marked confidential, the department may choose not to publish it, or any part of it, in the department's discretion (for example where it includes personal information or opinions about a third party).
Access
The department will securely store your personal information and the department's privacy policy contains information regarding complaint handling processes and how to access and/or seek correction of personal information held by the department. Further information is available at Privacy | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.