Brexit has left the UK aviation sector up in the air
Since Brexit, UK pilot’s qualifications are no longer recognised in the EU and planes have to fly to America or Brazil for maintenance. If the government is serious about resetting Britain’s relationship with Europe then aviation would be a good place to start, says Chris Hope
In 1945, William T Piper, the founder of the eponymous aircraft manufacturer said: “Once you have learned to fly your plane, it is far less fatiguing to fly than it is to drive a car.” But what if you need to fly your plane further afield than planned? What if, for necessary maintenance and repair, you need to fly an aircraft for 11 hours and 20 minutes to South California as opposed to flying just over an hour to Germany for what would be an identical service? It seems odd, almost counter-intuitive and definitely fatiguing. But this is what many UK-registered aircraft have been compelled to do since 1 February 2020. While the date may be marked in the public psyche as the inexorable and lethal advance of Covid-19, it was also the date that the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement came into force.
While some in our great nation toast this as a moment of great national renewal and pride, many in the aviation industry are more sceptical. Not one Article or Annex of the Withdrawal Agreement caters to the aviation sector as a whole. In practice, the lack of any form of agreement about aircraft maintenance and engineering between the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority and the European Agency Safety Agreement (EASA) makes for an almost farcical reality: a UK airline whose aircraft has a component or engine that needs maintenance (as a rule of thumb a basic maintenance check-up is required once every three months), instead of flying to somewhere like Bonn for maintenance, will need to fly to America or Brazil, which have relevant agreements with the UK. In some cases, this can lead to airlines forking out almost £500,000 more for a service or maintenance Stateside as opposed to closer to home in Europe, for a straightforward maintenance check.
Aviation has been a casualty of Brexit
This is not an attempt to stoke political tensions. Nor is this an attempt to row back on a political decision for the UK to leave the EU. It is simply to highlight that Britain’s aviation industry has been a casualty of decision making that diminishes our reputation globally while also devaluing an industry which contributes £24bn of GVA. We are chipping away at that advantage and adding extra cost and reduced productivity to UK Plc, increasing the burden on our passengers who inevitably pay more for goods imported via air cargo and air tickets.
But it’s not only engineers or components, there’s one unintended consequence of Brexit that goes to the heart of the aviation industry: pilots’ qualifications. These are no longer recognised by the EU. As such, pilots are stuck in an almost Kafka-esque reality whereby British pilots are re-examined for identical qualifications in the EU at a substantial cost and their UK licences are rendered practically worthless outside the UK.
Pilots are stuck in an almost Kafka-esque reality whereby British pilots are re-examined for identical qualifications in the EU at a substantial cost and their UK licences are rendered practically worthless outside the UK
An elegant solution would be to have a simple bilateral or mutual cooperation agreement between the UK and the EU to ensure the mutual recognition of professional qualifications. And we hope that the government heeds our call. Since this government came to power, there have been myriad mentions of “resetting” its relationship with the EU both in Parliament and the wider media. However exactly what such a reset constitutes is still up in the air.
Aviation would be a good place to start. Because just as our architects need to continue to innovate across Europe, just as lawyers may wish to work from Madrid as easily as from London, we must ensure that freedoms of the air and in particular, freedom for our pilots and our engineers, can be maintained just as effectively across the Channel.
Chris Hope is COO of One Air