The European Commission says it will allow UK airlines to continue operating services into the European Union for a period of six months after 31 December in the event of a no-deal Brexit, subject to reciprocal rights being granted to EU carriers flying to the UK.
In the proposal for a new regulation, the European Commission says that without an agreement governing aviation “there would be no legal basis for the provision of air services between the United Kingdom and the Member States by the respective carriers after the end of the transition period under the Withdrawal Agreement”.
It added: “In a no-deal scenario, it is expected that the consequences for the respective economies would be severe…air travel time and costs would significantly increase as alternative routes are sought, and so would pressure on the air transport infrastructure within those alternative routes, while air transport demand would fall.”
The Commission said that several airlines and airports representatives had expressed the view that a high level air connectivity should be maintained with UK air carriers by keeping a high level of market access. However, other stakeholders (mostly EU air carriers' representatives) to the contrary highlighted that the status quo should not be maintained in the absence of full regulatory alignment, in order to ensure a level playing field in the market.
It added that if reciprocal rights for EU carriers were not agreed, it would adopt measures to correct the situation, including the limitation or withdrawal of operating authorisations of United Kingdom air carriers.