The European Commission today stepped up its contingency planning for the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) at the end of March without a deal and proposed two legislative short-term measures to limit disruption to air traffic and extend the validity of certain European Aviation Safety Agency certificates, in particular type certificates.
The air-transport-related proposals are part of a wider action plan to unilaterally implement contingency measures across different sectors where a no-deal Brexit “would create major disruption for citizens and businesses,” the Commission said. It pointed out that the measures can mitigate only the most severe consequences of hard Brexit, a withdrawal without an agreement, and are an exercise in “damage limitation.”
The market access proposal calls for a “basic connectivity that will suffice to cover the basic needs of the member countries' economies” without, however, guaranteeing the continuation of all existing air transport services under the same terms as they are supplied today.
UK carriers will be allowed to make a technical stop in the EU or fly over the EU, though they will lose their current right to operate freely within the EU—between member countries and domestically in member countries. Their traffic rights to the EU will be restricted to third and fourth freedom; in other words, they will be allowed to operate between any point in the UK and any point in the EU27.
In addition, their capacity will be restricted. According to the proposed regulation, which was released on Wednesday, “the total seasonal capacity to be provided by UK air carriers for routes between the UK and each member state shall not exceed the total number of frequencies operated by those carriers on those routes during respectively the IATA winter and summer seasons of the year of 2018.” In other words, the number of flights that UK carriers will be allowed to operate to the EU is frozen at this year’s pre-Brexit levels.
The Commission also noted that none of the usual operational flexibility devices—such as cooperative marketing arrangements, leasing of aircraft, change of gauge—have been foreseen for UK carriers to provide air services under the new regulation.
Brussels has been liberal in defining the ownership of UK airlines. UK airlines, it said, will have to be majority owned by UK interest or by EU/European Economic Area interests “in any combination, whether alone or together” with the UK or UK nationals.
EU member countries will not be allowed to negotiate or enter into any bilateral air services agreements with the UK and will not grant UK air carriers more traffic rights than these covered in the temporary regulation.
The regulation will enter into force in case of a no-deal Brexit, though it is conditional to the UK giving equivalent rights to EU carriers, and will last until the end of March 2020.
The UK Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the European Commission’s proposals “are welcome.” The government would need to study the detail, but any steps to ensure that flights are maintained between the UK and EU immediately after Brexit “is good news,” he said.
In its technical notices published September 24, the UK government already indicated it would permit EU airlines to fly to the UK and would expect this to be reciprocated.