London - QNA
Ryanair has warned it will have to halt flights from the UK for "weeks or months" if Theresa May does not seal an early bilateral Brexit deal on international aviation.
The suspension of flights from Stansted and other airports is "a very distinct possibility", the company’s chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan, told the Guardian.
Ryanair, a Dublin-based company, is legally allowed to operate out of the UK under a Europe-wide "open skies" regulation that allows all EU airlines and those in Morocco, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland to fly in and out of any country signed up to the pact.
Sorahan says that even if May changed her stance, Ryanair has to make contingency plans as the EU has said there can be no Brexit deal until all parts of the arrangement are agreed. "Europe has been very clear in recent days that no deals are going to be put in place, they are not planning to put any special deals in place," said Sorahan. "If there was a cliff-edge scenario with World Trade Organisation rules and no bilateral on open skies in place, there is a distinct possibility that there will be no flights for a period of time between Europe and the UK.
"The impact on business would be disastrous." Britain is one of Ryanair’s key bases with 40 of its 400 aircraft operating out of 19 UK airports including Stansted, Glasgow and Belfast.
Source: QNA