There has been a lot of emotionally charged political rhetoric on the effects of Brexit, both on the UK and the EU. As time passes attention is changing from the process of withdrawal to specific effects of that withdrawal. There are literally thousands of either EU edicts now embedded as UK law or UK laws enshrining EU regulations so the UK travel industry has a lot of potential change to weigh up. Here are three that hit the headlines this week:
Border security
UK residents were realistically expecting to experience delays when, after Brexit, British passport holders would no longer be entitled to use the EU passport channel entering EU member states. The reverse would be the case for Europeans entering the UK.
But Brits are experiencing the longer security queues sooner than they expected. New rules made since the recent terrorist attacks mean that all non-Schengen passport-holders must have their passports scanned and checked. A quick waving through of British passports is no longer an option at EU airports.
This summer UK business travellers are getting an early taster of how it feels not to have a passport which whisks you quickly through airport security queues.
Airline ownership
At the end of last week Air France KLM purchased 31% of Virgin's remaining 51% holding in Virgin Atlantic. That means the carrier is now owned 49% by Delta, 31% by Air France KLM and 20% by Virgin.
Both the UK and the EU forbid foreign ownership of an airline to exceed 49%. Not all of Virgin Group ownership is British but it emerged this week that the sale also involved all the owners' agreeing a "put" option so that in the event of a hard Brexit the ownership would revert back to Virgin Group to put it into majority UK ownership if necessary to continue flying.
British carriers and European bases
easyJet recently created an Austrian-based airline to get an EU AOC (air operator's certificate) and continue to enjoy the trading benefits of being an EU member state carrier.
This doesn't affect UK travellers but it means that after Brexit Continental business travellers, bookers and travel managers will continue to have the easyJet option when they fly between one EU airport and another.
What will, however, affect UK corporate travel managers severely post-Brexit will be the UK's inability to access the biggest benefit of all for the aviation community, namely the US-EU Open Skies Agreement. You must be a European carrier to qualify for this EU agreement. For example, Norwegian qualifies via its Irish subsidiary, not its Norwegian operation. IAG may be a Spanish company but it is unclear what percentage of the ownership is British rather than European. Becoming recognised as European for the purposes of a viable aviation industry is probably less an issue than the fact that for the UK this would mean acceptance of the supremacy of the European Court of Justice, a move that the present government will not countenance.
The UK is clearly optimistic that it will be able to forge its own Open Skies agreement with the US. This is important as many UK flights are not point-to-point but are instead connecting between Continental destinations and the US.
Both Europe and the UK's interests would be best served by maintaining maximum co-operation for all aspects of aviation from carriers to air traffic control. But politicians do not always behave logically.
They are hopefully aware that 2018 schedules and contracts will loom quite shortly.