Fifth freedom routes, are one of the coolest things when it comes to commercial aviation; Imagine flying from New York to Vancouver, for example, on a non-Canadian or non-US airline. To define it, a “fifth freedom” flight is the right of an airline to carry revenue traffic from “country A” to “country B” and then pick up and drop off traffic from “country B” to “country C.” When you think about it, these flight routings make no sense, but really provide a unique opportunity for the flyer.
What’s an example of a fifth freedom route?
One of the most popular routes is Cathay Pacific’s New York JFK to Vancouver. It’s only 65,000 AAdvantage miles round-trip in First Class, and features Cathay’s longhaul First Class product in both directions.
What is not an example of a fifth freedom route?
Qantas’s New York to Los Angeles flight connecting to Sydney is not a fifth freedom route because passengers cannot book just the JFK to LAX portion. They must book all the way through Sydney, and cannot disembark in LAX.
LAN’s Sydney to Auckland Fifth Freedom Route
Here’s a listing of known fifth freedom routes currently in operation:
This list was published on 1/7/15. To find the most accurate, up-to-date listing, click here. If you see any corrections here, please contact me so I can update.
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Air China
- Munich to Athens
- Madrid to Sao Paulo
- Montreal to Havana
- Barcelona to Vienna
Air India
- Hong Kong to Kansai
- Hong Kong to Seoul
EgyptAir
- Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur
Garuda Indonesia
- London Gatwick to Amsterdam
China Airlines
- Rome to Delhi
- Amsterdam to Bangkok
- Brisbane to Auckland
- Sydney to Auckland
- Hong Kong to Jakarta
- Singapore to Surabaya
- Tapei to Bangkok
- Kansai Osaka to New York JFK
- Tokyo Narita to Honolulu
British Airways
- Singapore to Sydney
- Colombo to Male
- Doha to Bahrain
- Abu Dhabi to Muscat
- Antigua to Saint Kitts
- Antigua to Tobago
- Antigua to San Juan
- Antigua to Punta Cana
- Nassau to Grand Cayman
- Nassau to Providenciales
- Saint Lucia to Grenada
- Saint Lucia to Port of Spain
China Eastern
- Colombo to Malé
Delta Air Lines
Tokyo to Koror, Palau
Cathay Pacific
- New York JFK to Vancouver
- Bangkok to Singapore
- Bangkok to Karachi
- Bangkok to Mumbai
- Bangkok to Colombo
- Bangkok to Delhi
- Singapore to Colombo
- Taipei to Osaka
- Taipei to Seoul
- Taipei to Fukuoka
- Taipei to Tokyo
Iberia
- San Salvador to Guatemala City
Singapore Airlines
- New York JFK to Frankfurt
- Houston to Moscow
- San Francisco to Seul Incheon
- San Fransisco to Hong Kong
- Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita
- Manchester to Munich
- Sao Paulo to Barcelona
- Dubai to Cairo
South African Airways
- Accra to Abidjan
- Washington DC Dulles to Dakar
Kenya Airways
- Dubai to Hong Kong
- Bangkok to Guangzhou
- Bangkok to Hong Kong
Turkish Airlines
- Bishkek to Ulaanbaatar
- Bahrain to Muscat
- Djibouti to Mogadishu
- Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok
- Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires
United Airlines
- Koror to Manila
- Koror to Yap
- Honolulu to Guam via Majuro, Kwajalein, Kosrae Island, Pohnpei Island, and Weno Island
- Kuwait to Bahrain
- Singapore to Hong Kong
Thai Airways
- Karachi to Muscat
- Hong Kong to Seoul
- Taipei to Seoul
- Taipei to Hong Kong
- Los Angeles to Seoul
- Los Angeles to Osaka
KLM
- Dammam to Kuwait
- Doha to Muscat
- Singapore to Denpasar
- Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta
Swiss Air
- Dubai to Muscat
Air France
- Los Angeles to Papeete
- Buenos Aires to Montevideo
- Jakarta to Singapore
LAN/TAM
- Auckland to Sydney
- Madrid to Frankfurt
- Miami to Punta Cana
- Miami to Caracas
- New York JFK to Toronto
Ethiopian Airlines
- Los Angeles to Dublin
- Lomé, via GRU when traveling eastbound to Rio de Janeiro
- Lomé, via GIG when traveling westbound to Sao Paulo
- Bamako to Dakar
- Bujumbura to Kigali
- Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur
- Bangkok to Singapore
- Cairo to Stockholm
- Cotonou to Abidjan
- Kigali to Entebbe
- Delhi to Hangzhou
- Malabo to Douala
- Malaysian Airlines
- Los Angeles to Tokyo
EVA Air
- Bangkok to Amsterdam
- Bangkok to Vienna
- Bangkok to London Heathrow
Etihad
- Beijing to Nagoya
- Singapore to Brisbane
Qantas
- Dubai to London
Lufthansa
- Baku to Ashgabat
- Abu Dhabi to Muscat
Sri Lankan
- Bangkok to Shanghai
- Bangkok to Guangzhou
- Bangkok to Hong Kong
- Bangkok to Beijing
Royal Jordanian
- Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur
- Bangkok to Hong Kong
Air Canada
- Buenos Aires to Santiago
Jet Airways
- Newark to Brussels
- Toronto to Brussels
Emirates
- Auckland to Sydney
- Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro
- Sydney to Auckland
- Colombo to Singapore
- Colombo to Malé
- Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne
- Singapore to Melbourne
- Bangkok to Sydney
- Malta to Larnaca
- Bangkok to Hong Kong
- Singapore to Brisbane
- Harare to Lusaka
- Hong Kong to Bankgok
- Brisbane to Auckland
- Melbourne to Auckland
- Sydney to Christchurch
- Accra to Abidjan
- New York JFK to Milan
Qatar Airways
- Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo
- Budapest to Zagreb
- Baku to Tbilisi
- Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City
- Bucharest to Sofia
- Johannesburg to Maputo
- Kuala Lumpur to Phuket
- Kigali to Entebbe
- Bangkok to Hanoi
Air New Zealand
- Los Angeles to London
- Los Angeles to Rarotonga
Brussels Airlines
- Abidjan to Monrovia
- Bamako to Ouagadougou (one-way)
- Freetown to Banjul (one-way)
- Conakry to Banjul (one-way)
COPA Airlines
- San José, Costa Rica to Guatemala City
- San Pedro Sula to San José
- Managua to Guatemala City
- Tegucigalpa to San José
- San José to Managua
Korean Air
- Los Angeles to Sao Paulo
- Vienna to Zurich
- Honolulu to Tokyo
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
Where’s the love for Garuda? LGW-AMS is one of the best fifth freedom routes!!! 🙂
Updating now. Thanks!
Air india fly hkg to icn and kix
barcelona-viena air china is missing too
LH canceled BKK-SGN and BKK-KUL long time ago.
Jet Airways also operates BKK-SGN.
Kenya Airways flies BKK-HKG.
China Airlines doesn’t fly HKG-BKK, but it does TPE-BKK.
Ethiopian canceled BKK-HKG, now BKK-SIN.
SIN-HKG on United.
Great list. Thanks for the compilation
I’ve always been surprised that there aren’t more of these that stop in Hawaii. I guess it’s just out of the way or doesn’t make financial sense.
I believe AF also fly CGK-SIN as fifth freedom.
QR no longer flies SIN-DPS
There are 2 KE sections and you doubled up on the LAX-NRT in the SQ section
Why is TPE to BKK listed for CI? They’re based out of Taiwan.
SIN-NRT and HKG-SGN for UA, also there is no more EY BNE-SIN
TAM flies JFK-YYZ.
Gosh, I don’t know how I missed that! I thought it was on there! Whoops. Added. Thanks! 🙂
adding two more:
KLM – DMM AUH
Cathay – DXB DMM
Do you have the schedules for those?
AF from LAX to PPT is not strictly speaking a fifth freedom route. PPT is considered domestic France with the same legal status as somewhere like Marseille or Toulouse.
Are there plans to update this list?
Shame this is so out of date. Much more accurate info at https://www.flypointyend.com/5th-freedom-flights/
Not that many European 5th Freedoms listed now are there?
Back in the 1990s a few Asian Airlines especially operated quite a
substantial network of Intra-European routes in 747 times.
I wonder if anyone has got the resources to compile a list of
past 5th Freedoms,in particular the 1990s? That would be
interesting.
Tapei to Bangkok is not a fifth freedom route of course, since China Airlines is a Taiwanese airline in fact (not Chinese) and TPE is its home airport.