ABSTRACT
Prospects for crafting a multilateral commercial aviation regime with universal reach were virtually buried at Chicago. Confronted with the failure of commercial multilateralism at Chicago the immediate future inevitably lay with bilateralism. In the first post-war phase for international civil aviation, the Bermuda Model, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Transit Agreement and US leadership determined developments. The Americans dictated the content of the bilateral air service agreement struck in Bermuda. The Americans were so pleased with what they had extracted from the British that they declared Bermuda a model agreement. Both ICAO and IATA made, and still make, important contributions for international governance through rules, regulations and practices that dilute the force of anarchy in international affairs. The international civil aviation industry travelled a huge distance on its development path between the mid-1940s and the early 1990s.
