London (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – UK airlines are being pushed to fly planes to the United States for gradual and more expensive repairs instead of Europe because of Brexit regulations.
Why Are UK Airlines Opting for US Repairs Post-Brexit?
The UK and EU, despite having essentially identical safety regulations, have two separate licensing systems for maintenance installations. Following a two-year post-Brexit elegance period which culminated in 2023, any UK-registered aircraft cannot be lawfully repaired at EU-licensed facilities.
Now British businesses have been flying their planes thousands of miles across the Atlantic to the US, which has a mutual recognition arrangement for aviation engineering with the UK.
How Have Brexit Regulations Affected UK Airlines’ Maintenance Costs?
Cargo airline One Air, which functions out of the East Midlands importing electronic goods, has two Boeing 747s, which require one basic check every three months and a thorough check every two years. One Air expressed a straightforward maintenance check in Germany would take a week and cost approximately £164,000. In the US, it takes a fortnight and commands £203,000. Detailed supervision takes 27 days turnaround for £1.25 million at a German structure. In the US, it brings 41 days for £1.7 million.
What Are the Financial Implications of Brexit for UK Airlines?
Chris Hope, One Air’s chief operating officer, stated: “It creates a bigger running cost that effectively gets passed through to the consumer as an extra cost burden that we see as potentially unnecessary.” He contended that costs were driven up because parts for the planes also had to be UK-endorsed, and were sourced from the US as a result.
Why Are EU Maintenance Facilities Unlikely to Obtain UK Licenses?
EU facilities can apply for individual UK licences but are improbable to do so given the additional cost and red tape. The UK Government desires a deal with Brussels on the mutual recognition of professional credentials as part of its push for closer relations with Europe, but EU officials have rushed cold water on those hopes.
Why Did the EU Reject Previous Calls for Mutual Recognition?
They stated they had already rejected injunctions for a similar agreement from the Tory government during the 2020 Brexit trade negotiations because it “at the time, it was not believed in the EU’s interest”. A mutual recognition arrangement would mean EU engineers could service British aircraft, and vice versa, as they did when all were under one licensing system before the UK left the EU and its European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
An EU official cautioned Britain would have to become a rule-taker if it desired to rejoin EASA as an associate member. “This is a deliberate choice of the UK, and does not trigger the need for the EU to engage in a discussion of ‘recognition’ of UK certificates,” one official told The Telegraph.
What Are the Broader Impacts of Brexit on UK-EU Business Relations?
A spokesman for the Airlines UK trade body expressed it had felt the consequences of a Brexit trade deal which Sir Keir Starmer has defined as “botched”. “It would be in the interests of all parties across the UK and EU to remove this burden and reintroduce mutual recognition of pilot and engineer licences,” he stated.
Naomi Smith, the chief executive of Best for Britain, which campaigns for more consolidated EU-UK ties, stated: “This is just one instance from one industry of how divergence from our largest market and most immediate neighbours is increasing prices for businesses and inevitably consumers.”