It is looking increasingly likely that flights between Britain and the EU will suffer major disruption after March 2019 due to Brexit, Michael O’Leary has warned.
Airlines have said that they need a new deal to replace the Open Skies arrangement by September or October next year if they are to continue providing scheduled flights in the months after Britain leaves the EU.
The chief executive of Ryanair said initial signs from the Brexit talks were not promising and that likely EU demands for any new deal — including oversight by the European Court of Justice — would probably be unpalatable to London.
“It’s odds against a deal being done in advance of Christmas 2018, because it is in the Europeans’ interest to not have a deal done . . . and all hell will be kicking off over here in the UK,” Mr O’Leary said in London.
He was speaking after talks with Chris Grayling, the British transport secretary. Mr O’Leary said that Mr Grayling was conscious of the need to conclude an aviation deal before the end of next year. However, he said he did not share Mr Grayling’s optimism that a deal would be straightforward.
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“We believe the French and the German airlines in particular are actively negotiating against any favourable deal,” he said.
Mr O’Leary has been warning since January that a failure by London and Brussels to agree a new bilateral aviation deal by late 2018 could lead to a total freeze on flights between Britain and the EU. He said that without a deal, Ryanair would move dozens of planes from Britain to other EU countries to continue flying.
Mr O’Leary, an outspoken critic of the British decision to leave the EU, has warned of the uncertainties caused by the vote ever since the referendum in June last year and said that a deal looked no more likely now than it did then.
“We’re 12 months down the road and we’re no closer to an agreement,” Mr O’Leary said.
He said that if the summer 2019 flights were cancelled, Britons would be left with “the option of driving to Scotland or getting the ferry to Ireland” for their holidays.
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He joked that this would appeal to “all those many millions who like to go to Spain, Portugal and Greece for the cheap, sunny holidays”.