UK Aviation Industry unhappy at loss of European Aviation Safety Agency membership
Brexit, the political process that saw the ‘British Exit’ from the European Union after a 2016 vote and that finally became reality in January 2020, has presented a worry for the aviation industry in both the UK and Europe. Even trying to put to one side the bitter ‘Remain’ versus ‘Leave’ hardline positions that still divide British voters, little doubt remains that Brexit has complicated trading conditions for original equipment manufacturers, airlines, airports, and MROs in both the UK and the EU. More particularly, the process for issuing approvals and licenses will likely remain complicated for some time to come.
Given the intense political divisions over Brexit in the UK, most aviation executives appear reluctant to comment publicly on what it has meant for the industry. However, speaking off the record, many are clearly unhappy that the treatment of the sector has taken place on political lines rather than with the practical considerations so important to the smooth running of the aviation complex.
The hopes of Britain’s airlines and other aviation companies that the UK would remain a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) would be dashed. ‘Exit Day’ took place on January 31, 2020, followed by a transition period through December 31 of that year, when EASA membership ended. A Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) took effect at the beginning of 2021 and provided protocols that would oversee commercial relations between the UK and the EU, including a 26-page section on aviation.
The UK’s departure from EASA was not inevitable and could have been avoided if the UK’s Conservative government had made concessions that would have allowed for a so-called ‘soft’ rather than ‘hard’ Brexit resolution. In the period between the referendum in June 2016 and the final resolution of the UK’s Brexit settlement with the EU in December 2019, widespread consensus and expectations within the industry seemed to indicate it would remain an EASA member state, with minimal disruption.
In March, at the annual conference of the British Business & General Aviation Association, the group’s chief executive, Marc Bailey, said that the loss of mutual UK-EU license acceptance from next January would undoubtedly worsen existing skills shortages, mainly for British aviation companies.