- Westminster government wants aviation deals to continued unchanged
- Have your cake and eat it approach criticised
- rejected by EU Commission and IATA
London aviation regulation the CAA’s wish list in the event of there being a “no deal” Brexit has been rejected by the European Commission and IATA.
In response to the CAA’s wish list, a European Commission spokesman reiterated to the document published by the EC’s directorate-general for mobility and transport in Jan. 2018 stating that all EU rules covering air transport will cease to apply to Britain when it departs the EU. Airlines holding operating licenses issued by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority will cease to be valid in the EU’s 27 remaining nations. Air traffic rights for British arilines serving EU destinations, and vice versa, will cease.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general expressed concerns at the vast amount of work that will be required by aviation organizations and individuals to maintain air links. “The Westminster government’s papers on the air transport implications of a ‘no deal’ departure from the EU clearly exposes the extreme seriousness of what is at stake and underscores the huge amount of work that would be required to maintain vital air links. It is not just permission for flights to take off and land. Everything from pilots’ licenses to security arrangements need to be agreed. Much of this could be secured through mutual recognition of existing standards. But formalising this cannot happen overnight. And even when that is done, there will still be an administrative burden for the airlines and governments involved that will take time and significant resources. While we still hope for a comprehensive EU-UK deal, an assumption that ‘it will be all right on the night’ is far too risky to accept. Every contingency should be prepared for, and we call upon both the EU and the UK to be far more transparent with the state of the discussions.”
The London based Civil Aviation Authority accepted air transport agreements between Britain and the EU would end on March 29 2019, but said it would give EU-based airlines the right to continue to fly into the UK and “would expect EU countries to reciprocate”, because disruption to air services “would not be in the interest of any EU country or Britain” It sought permission to talk direct directly to the European Safety Authority.
It hoped that new multilateral or bilateral agreements regarding permissions for continued air services could be reached between Britain and EU or individual EU member-states. Such agreements would, again, be reciprocal.
The Westminster government has recently attempted to split the European position by going directly to EU countries with reciprocal air service offers. EU chief negotiator Michael Barnier reprimanded the ruling Conservative party’s Brexit secretary Dominic Raab after it emerged that the Westminster government had written to EU capitals seeking those aviation bilaterals.
