Luckily Rolls-Royce have a strong presence in Germany with turbine engine development and manufacturing so there isn’t much to fear… 
In an interview published in yesterday’s Les Echos newspaper, and repeated in today’s Daily Telegraph, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator is quoted as follows:
Croyez-vous à l’hypothèse d’un Brexit sans accord ?
Nous ne le souhaitons pas du tout, nous n’y travaillons pas, mais nous n’excluons aucune option. Un tel scénario nous poserait des problèmes, et de bien plus grands encore au Royaume-Uni. Il faut prendre la mesure de ce qu’est le Brexit. Je vous donne quelques exemples. Pour Londres, quitter Euratom sans accord, ce serait rencontrer des problèmes immédiats pour l’importation de matière nucléaire, qu’il s’agisse des centrales nucléaires ou des hôpitaux. Ce serait quitter le ciel unique européen, et ne plus pouvoir reconnaître les qualifications des pilotes, ni obtenir d’autorisation de décollage ou d’atterrissage. Et qu’arriverait-il aux produits agroalimentaires importés au Royaume-Uni ? Il y aurait immédiatement des contrôles douaniers, peut-être des taxes. Voilà pourquoi je souhaite un accord.
I apologise for quoting the whole paragraph in French, but it provides the context for his extraordinary statement (in bold) which I translate as:
and to no longer be able to recognise the qualifications of pilots.
For sure, M Barnier is too much a master of his brief to believe what he is quoted as having said.
But what if he is not a liar? Has he been informed that the Commission will direct member states of the EU-27 to resile from their obligations under Article 33 of the Chicago Convention?
I think he refers to other cases. Article 33 says
Certificates of airworthiness and certificates
of competency and licenses issued or rendered valid
by the contracting State in which the aircraft ie
registered, shall be recognized as valid by the
other contracting States, provided that the
requirements under which such certificates or licenses
were issued or rendered valid are equal to or above
the minimum standards which may be established from
time to time pursuant to this Convention.
For sure a G-reg Airbus with a G-reg pilot and G-reg stewardesses would be fine under Article 33. However, what about a D-reg Airbus with a G-reg captain? That would be a problem.
Another problem would be slots where UK carriers would be treated like 3rd state carriers and be under severe limitations. This is why Easyjet has obtained another EU AOC (or at least announced that). The UK airlines will probably be OK because they can just move elsewhere and there aren’t many in the first place. It would be a lot trickier for flying personnel.
So I think Barnier is right. He only talks about the legal consequences given the current situation. This is not some threat about not suppling nuclear fuel and taking pilots’ rights.
It would be a desperate piece of hardball, to shut down air travel.
Interesting times…
Normally you keep the biggest weapons back till you need them, and there is a lot of time to go.
Peter wrote:
It would be a desperate piece of hardball, to shut down air travel.
This will certainly not happen as all the ICAO conventions are independent of the EU. Otherwise there would be no air travel between Burundi and the the EU.
But what might actually happen (read that elsewhere a few days ago) is that the EU might not initially agree on cabotage between the UK and the rest of the EU. This would mean that flights between the UK and the continent could be done like always, but every flight of a UK airline inside the EU would require an individual permission. That would be the end of a company like EasyJet as it is today, unless it moves it’s headquarters to Ireland just like Ryanair.
what_next wrote:
That would be the end of a company like EasyJet as it is today, unless it moves it’s headquarters to Ireland just like Ryanair.
Why Ireland when there is Austria? Sounds like Australia to most.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/14/easyjet-austria-eu-flights-brexit
The worst case scenario is that the UK will end up like the USA, Australia, whatever – just another ICAO Contracting State.
Yes it would prevent a UK based company doing intra-EU flights – unless they set up an EU subsidiary for it, which is probably fairly easy (unless the EU wants to specifically screw the UK some more, via screwing Easyjet).
It might hit UK based ATPL training but to think that the EU would refuse the presently 100% EASA compliant training is really stretching it. Especially as the default language is English which only the UK and Ireland speak.
Barnier is playing for high stakes because, taking UK domestic opinion, this sort of thing is what led to the rise of the UK IP, which in turn led to Cameron promising the referendum, which (following more hardball from Brussels to Cameron at just the “right” time) led to the Brexit vote, and this sort of hardball will just lead to the UK walking off the table. So I think this is Barnier talking bollocks (unlikely, as Jacko says) / floating a baloon to see what reaction he gets (not sure who he is addressing) / getting desperate to get the UK to cave in (which won’t happen in the present climate here; the UK will walk off).
Technically it would be very hard to implement such a thing.
Peter wrote:
The worst case scenario is that the UK will end up like the USA, Australia, whatever – just another ICAO Contracting State.
Worst case? I would say the most realistic scenario. Unless they also leave EASA, licensing will not become an issue – and even if, there is EASA approved training available in the States, so why not in a non-EASA UK. If students will go for it is another matter of course.
Peter wrote:
…getting desperate to get the UK to cave in (which won’t happen in the present climate here; the UK will walk off).
If the UK just walks off then the EU will treat them exactly like Burkina Faso or Burundi. I hope they know that.
Peter wrote:
Yes it would prevent a UK based company doing intra-EU flights – unless they set up an EU subsidiary for it, which is probably fairly easy (unless the EU wants to specifically screw the UK some more, via screwing Easyjet).
Easy Jet already have a subsidary outside the UK in Switzerland, who in turn has a air transport treaty with the EU. So they would have to transfer the intra EU travel to them and ready. Also there is Easy Jet opening in Austria I believe.
The few companies concerned will find workarounds. Who will be hurt massively are GA charter companies who then only can fly UK-EU but not EU-EU.
Cabotage has nothing to do with EASA though.
Peter wrote:
It would be a desperate piece of hardball, to shut down air travel.
Will be very effective too imposed on an island state. When the UK handed in their resignation, a lot of EU decision makers used the age old Bugs Bunny Quote: “Of course you realise that THIS means war!” Not shooting war but economical may be as effective. And believe me, there are a lot of ruffled feathers in the Brussels crowd who will go much further than most people think they will, given the chance.
But possibly it may be a chance too. Why are there so many airplanes registered in the IOM or San Marino… maybe the UK might end up as the new registry of convenience if they leave. Unless their CAA mucks that up and becomes more restrictive than EASA is… G-Reg the new N-Reg?
So I think Barnier is right. He only talks about the legal consequences given the current situation. This is not some threat about not suppling nuclear fuel and taking pilots’ rights.
I’m sorry, but that won’t do; Barnier did not limit his threat to the odd case of a D-reg Airbus flown on a U.K. pilot’s licence.
But it’s worse than that. Mick Barnier is not some wretched analphabète bilingue from the banlieues. He is a well-educated civil servant, employed and paid by English and German taxpayers to deploy his mother tongue with precision. When he says that (EU-27 member states) will not be able to recognise the qualifications of (British) pilots (rather that merely failing or declining to do so in special cases such as the one cited above), he is either passing on a genuine threat of Armageddon from his Leader, or he may be justly accused of a Matildaesque inexactitude.
