'No flights' between UK and Europe from 2019 is possibility, warns Ryanair

There could be no flights between the UK and Europe in the immediate aftermath of Britain exiting the European Union, according to one airline.

On Tuesday, Theresa May signed the letter that formalises the Article 50 mechanism to start the clock on the two-year negotiating process to separate from the EU.

Ryanair warned that the UK government will either have to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the EU to allow flights to and from Europe to continue, or else revert to historical World Trade Organisation rules, which do not cover aviation.

Reversion to WTO rules would therefore raise "the distinct possibility of no flights between Europe and the UK for a period from March 2019 in the absence of a bilateral deal", the budget airline stated.

The Dublin-headquartered company, which employs more than 3,000 staff in the UK and in 2017 is due to carry more than 40m passengers to and from British airports, called for the government to immediately outline a strategy to maintain air travel between the UK and the EU from March 2019.

As airlines must release their summer 2019 schedules in March 2018, the government has 12 months until flight schedules would need to be slashed, Ryanair said.

"It’s become worrying that the UK Government seems to have no plan B to maintain Britain’s liberalised air links with Europe, in the absence of remaining in the “Open Skies” regime," said spokesman Kenny Jacobs.

Like all airlines, he said Ryanair plans its flights 12 months in advance, so it would need to make "deep cuts" to its flights both to, from and within the UK from March 2019 onwards if no deal was agreed in the coming year.

"The UK Government must respond to the airlines and our customers, and put aviation at the top of its agenda when it negotiates its Brexit deal with Brussels. Britain’s airlines, airports and holidaymakers need a real and early solution for aviation, or risk Britain being cut off from Europe in March 2019.”