BA boss Walsh says no-deal Brexit won’t stop UK flights
BRITISH Airways boss Willie Walsh yesterday dismissed warnings over a no-deal Brexit, saying planes would keep flying.
The chief executive of International Airlines Group, which also includes Aer Lingus, Vueling and Iberia, said people should be ‘sanguine’ about leaving the European Union, telling Radio 4’s Today programme ‘Brexit is inevitable’.
‘The timing of it is still the subject of debate in terms of the transition period, but aviation will continue to function.
‘There are issues we need to deal with, but it’s not rocket science. We have dealt with these before and I’m confident a comprehensive air transport agreement will be agreed between the UK and EU.’
He dismissed warnings from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about how British planes could be stopped from flying over his country’s territory.
Mr Varadkar was branded an ‘airhead’ on the front page of the UK edition of The Sun last month after comments he made about the impact of a potential ‘no-deal’ Brexit on air travel next year.
‘The situation at the moment is that the United Kingdom is part of the single European sky, and if they leave the EU they are not, and that does mean that if there was a nodeal, hard Brexit next March the planes would not fly and Britain would be an island in many ways and that is something that they need to think about,’ Mr Varadkar had said.
Mr Walsh said yesterday: ‘I’m not sure exactly what he meant, but the idea that airspace will be closed for flights transiting a country – that is not going to happen.’
However, aviation experts and politicians rallied to Mr Varadkar’s side yesterday as rising Brexit tension saw vicious attacks on him in Britain. The European Commission and the Irish Aviation Authority have both said UK flights will be unable to land in any EU country in the absence of a new deal.
General Nick Carter, the head of Britain’s Armed Forces, also went on the Today programme to deny reports the British army was being put on standby for a no-deal Brexit – which could see troops help deliver food, medicines and fuel.