It is a mere formality. Under the new US/Canada bilateral, flag carriers for the two countries can act essentially like flag carriers for both countries, only needing to originate the flight in the home country (hence YYZ-LAX-SYD). The US and Australia have open skies and the Canada/Australia bilateral allows for an LAX gateway (AC used HNL for years and could sell the HNL-SYD-HNL sectors). In a message dated 3/5/2006 1:17:59 PM Central Standard Time, mgreenwood@xxxxxxxxx writes: I don't think that's been approved yet