The EU has shackled our aviation industry

SIR – Christopher Booker (The Last Word, April 29) states that if we cannot stay within the European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) certification straitjacket, our aviation factories and civil aviation in Britain will close down overnight. He is wrong.

Before we handed British aviation certification rights to Easa, our Civil Aviation Authority was held in high regard throughout the world, alongside America’s Federal Aviation Administration. It was widely accepted that if either of these bodies certified an aircraft or its systems, it was safe.

Escalating EU bureaucracy has seriously damaged the cost base of Britain’s aviation interests. Businesses and many politicians need to get a sense of perspective and a better grasp of aviation history.

Grahame Wiggin

Cannock, Staffordshire

SIR – I agree with most of Mr Booker’s views but he is wrong to forecast doom for our flights after Brexit.

Surely there are a number of countries whose civil aircraft fly into Europe but are not members of the EU, and there is no reason why Britain should not be one of them.

Geoffrey Richards

Trowbridge, Wiltshire

SIR – Geoffery Casson’s letter (April 29) is misleading.

He says that if we join the European Free Trade Association (Efta) we will remain in the Schengen area. First, we are not currently in the Schengen area – and, secondly, if we were to join Efta, we would not automatically become part of it. So we could join Efta without joining Schengen and keep our current border controls.

Paul Williams

Corbridge, Northumberland

SIR – If we were to join Efta, the only EU rules we would have to obey would be to do with our EU trade (a mere 7 per cent of GDP). The same applies to any trade agreement we make.

We can join Efta, of course, without any negotiations with Brussels at all.

Rev Philip Foster

Hemingford Abbots, Huntingdonshire