Multinational companies will register wherever it is best economically and politically. As for private GA, EASA has made this Annex I in any case where most private planes fits. Most private planes will always be on national register.
no
Peter wrote:
What is “ownership”?
That’s complicated indeed. I’m not sure, but the rules might count only stocks by vote, not by economic rights.
Peter wrote:
There is no way to control the geographical ownership of a listed company. The Sultan of Oman could probably buy 90% anytime and nobody could do anything about it.
You may argue that people may try to circumvent these rules. That is not wrong, but all people owning or controlling, directly or indirectly, more than a certain percentage (around 5% IIRC) of a listed company must register that fact at the stock exchange where the company is listed, again giving the authorities an opportunity to react. One might try to circumvent that through (illegal unreported) nominee shareholders. Fair enough, but for the arrangement not be caught by the regulator, the regulator must believe these people have the means and interest to buy the airline shares themselves, so it is not like you can round up some palace servants and have them buy up the shares on the stock exchange.
Then you have the additional problem that they must not appear linked to you, or it will raise the authorities’ suspicions.
Still, suppose the Sultan of Oman found enough credible such nominees (does one say “straw men” in English?). Unless he wants to be a passive shareholder, how would he exercise his shareholder votes? You’d have a stable group of people always voting the same way at the shareholder’s meeting (the way the Sultan of Oman told them to).
Indeed.
What is “ownership”? There is no way to control the geographical ownership of a listed company. The Sultan of Oman could probably buy 90% anytime and nobody could do anything about it. The UK Govt could block such in a “national security” scenario but that’s not EJ. So it must be more complex.
I’m certain that easyJet Europe (the company with the Austrian AOC and OE-reg planes) will understand that and will have worked to ensure 51% EU ownership – otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered.
“European Union limits non EU ownership of the airlines of its member states to 49%.” This might prove more difficult for easyjet/BA etc to do than just moving some licences.
The high-end scene in the UK has always been mostly non G-reg. Historically the much more available FAA IR was the main driver in light GA, say up to and including a TBM. I went N-reg after 3 years of G-reg (G-reg bought new).
Historically the UK CAA was also pretty efficient and full of smart people, including at the customer interface. This really has changed 
The G-reg bizjets are usually AOC charter ops; it has been possible to get a UK AOC with say an N-reg but by the time you got the permission (G-reg AOC operators were entitled to object to the DfT if someone applied for this) complied with the same maintenance etc you may as well get a G-reg.
The airline moves were done to avoid creating a cabotage situation. In international aviation, for paying passengers, you can fly e.g. an X-reg within country X, from X to country Y, but you cannot do a flight which departs and lands wholly within country Y. It is very hard to get international agreements to enable cabotage, because every country has its domestic airlines and they raise hell if anyone applies for a permission. The EU legalised cabotage within the EU, so e.g. Easyjet could do a flight wholly within France. Once the UK leaves the EU, Easyjet etc could continue flying where one end of the flight was in the UK but that would have restricted their operations considerably. So they moved to an EU based AOC, which needs an EU based office, nominally, and following the Brussels “extreme hardball” threat to invalidate UK pilot licenses on 29th March 2019, they moved those, and then they had to re-register any G-regs in an EU country… They no doubt spent millions to cover their 6 o’clock, but their shareholders would have expected them to do nothing lesser.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Easy and some other airlines are justifiably concerned about their ability to serve inter-European flights after Brexit. That is why they move away from G-Reg. Failing an air transport agreement at Brexit date, with G-Reg they might end up loosing all but the from-to UK routes if they remained in G-Reg.
I would think that this is decided by where they have their AOC, not where their aircraft are registered. Of course if you have an EASA AOC it is likely simpler to have the aircraft registered in EASA-land than outside.
Bathman wrote:
I suppose my question is can the CAA remain in It’s current form with the obvious massive loss of income they must be experiening? Also if the UK leaves EASA is their opportunity to improve our current regulations so the UK becomes a registration of choice. Rather than avoid?
Yes, I think one of the attractions of UK independence from EASA would be the pressure brought to bear to create a UK regulatory regime which is attractive when compared with EASA and equal when compared with FAA. Whether that pressure will result in leadership from within is another question. Time will tell. EASA would not be hard to beat and it does seem to me that pressure for UK CAA self preservation might produce results. Competition improves the breed.
