What precisely is the 6th freedom?

If one flies an airline to an airport in the home country of the airline and then the same airline to a third country, when is such a trip legal use of 3rd and 4th freedom, and when is a violation of the lack of 6th freedom committed?

Freedom rights can be found here.

http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/e...irfreedom.html

Sixth Freedom. The "unofficial" freedom to carry traffic between two foreign countries via the carrier’s home country by combining third and fourth freedoms. Not formally part of the original 1944 convention, it refers to the right to carry passengers between two countries (A and B) through an airport in the home country. With the hubbing function of most air transport networks, this freedom has become more common, notably in Europe (London, Amsterdam).

From my blog post on the Freedoms. You can click through to see the rest of them if you'd like.

Sixth Freedom of the Air
* This allows airlines from Country A to carry passengers between Countries B and C via Country A
* Example: British Airways would be allowed to carry passengers between India and the US via its UK home

Kinda like KA doing a sampe plane service China-Taiwan via its HKG home.

What are 8th and 9th freedom? Is flying from one country to another and then returning to a different airport in the first country a day trip, or cabotage?

If you follow the links kindly provided by people in response to your first question, you'll find an explantion of the 8th and 9th freedoms. You do read your own threads, don't you? You are very keen on starting them, after all

But what you do not find from the links is the answer to the question.

If an airline from country A carries passengers between country B and country C, there are 3 separate cases enumerated as separate freedoms.

Carrying the passengers on a line A-B-C is enumerated as 5th freedom.

Carrying the passengers on a line B-A-C is enumerated as 6th freedom.

Carrying the passengers on a line B-C is enumerated as 7th freedom.

However, if an airline from country A carries passengers between two places in country B, this is enumerated as 2 separate freedoms.

Carrying the passengers on a line A-B-B is enumerated as 8th freedom. It resembles 5th freedom.

Carrying the passengers on a line B-B is enumerated as 9th freedom. It resembles 7th freedom.

So, 5th and 7th freedoms have analogues in 8th and 9th freedom. But what about 6th freedom? The links do not mention any analogue to 6th freedom, so they leave this without mention!

So you're basically asking what does it mean if an airline carries passengers B-A-B? I'm pretty sure that would fall into the Eighth Freedom, but you're right, it isn't explicitly stated.

Well, A-B-C and B-A-C are treated separately, as 5th and 6th freedom. Why would A-B-B and B-A-B be under the same freedom?

I wish I could answer that for you, but I have no idea. All I know is that those nine freedoms are the only ones there are right now.