Originally Posted by
WHBM
You are actually paying for Controlled Airspace service, and this has an upper limit, which varies a bit by country. In the US it is 60,000 feet, in Europe it's 66,000 feet - both well beyond what commercial aircraft are capable of. Mainstream airliners can typically get up to abut 45,000, and some business jets up to 51,000 feet. Concorde (which had specially designated corridors) excepted, of course !
Interesting, although I suspect that if there were commercial airplanes in regular service that flew above 60/66,000 feet, that magically the ceiling of controlled airspace would be raised.
As far as territorial integrity, control of a country's airspace continues up to 100km. Above that, by international treaty, you can overfly a country without permission or payment, but since you'd be in space at that point, you'd have to be a satellite or space shuttle or space station to take advantage of that. Below 100km, you have to submit to the national laws of whatever country you're over, or risk being shot down if the country is able to do so.