Originally Posted by
nancypants
i’d like to believe that even if cabotage rules are going to be thing in this situation, LCY-DUB-LHR would essentially be treated as a simple return, due to both UK airports being LON. But would that be the case? And what about examples via other ports as above?
Originally Posted by
NickB
I think the point is that if you fly LHR-DUB-MAN on EI, for instance, this could be construed as cabotage if you have no stop-over in DUB. This is how the US applies its cabotage rules. If you were to fly BOS-YYZ and then YYZ-ORD on AC both on the same day, US authorities would regard that as BOS-ORD via YYZ and therefore cabotage.
I think that the idea is that if you actually need to go to the foreign destination (DUB or YYZ), for example because you have to attend a short business meeting there, then it is not cabotage. On the other hand, if you fly LCY-DUB-LHR because this is a "convenient" way to travel from one part of London to another part of London, then it is cabotage, if you use the US definition.
Using the US system, it's the airline that is fined if it is cabotage, but it is the passenger who knows if the passenger has business in the other country or not.