International civil aviation regulation is still mainly characterized by government influence and bilateral air transport services agreements. Also, the internationalization of the airline industry is still far away although the developments within the EEC may lead to the recognition of the need to abolish the ‘nationality’ criterion for airlines to operate internationally, at least for scheduled air services between the EEC member states. Professor Wassenbergh contends that the bilateral regime should be replaced by a multilateral regime, or to begin with maybe by one or more plurilateral regimes, creating a framework of rules enabling free competition between the airlines but allowing for temporary differential treatment based on existing differences between the states concerning their capabilities with respect to the participation under their own flag in the international air traffic market (‘pluralism’). Internationalization and privatization of the airline industry should form the basis for the treatment of air transport as a ‘trade in services’ to which the GATT-rules may be made to apply.