Officials in the United States are celebrating the signing of 100 Open Skies agreements with nations around the world.

The milestone was reached with the implementation of an agreement with Israel, which came into force earlier this week.

That agreement entered into force immediately after the US and Israel completed an exchange of diplomatic notes, following the signing of an agreement on December 1st, 2010.

The U.S.-Israel agreement will liberalise bilateral aviation relations as well as strengthening and expanding trade and tourism links which will benefit American and Israeli businesses and travellers, US officials argued.

Secretary of state Hilary Clinton addressed industry stakeholders in the Benjamin Franklin Room pf the State Department to celebrate the signing of the 100th agreement.

“Now, today, we have agreements with countries in every region of the world, from major economies, such as Japan, Canada and the European Union, to smaller but equally important countries such as El Salvador and Senegal,” Ms Clinton said.

“And on the President’s recent trip to Latin America, we concluded our new agreement with Brazil, our 101st partner. 

“And we look forward to expanding these partnerships around the world.”

The Department of State and Department of Transportation negotiated the first Open Skies Agreement, with the Netherlands, in 1992.

“In each case, an Open Skies agreement has powerful benefits – fewer government restrictions, more competition, more jobs in the air and on the ground; more people trading, exchanging and interacting; cheaper flights, more tourists, new routes to new cities – so that we now have passengers and shippers enjoying direct services between cities like Las Vegas and Seoul, or Phoenix and Montreal,” added Ms Clinton.