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Air services to and from the EU after Brexit


A ‘no-deal’ Brexit would take the UK out of the European Aviation Safety Agency with its entitlement to the ‘nine freedoms’ of the air. This article looks at the issues – and at what might follow


UK Airlines currently have access to the world’s most liberalised aviation market, the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA), through the UK’s membership of the EU. The ECAA is overseen by the European


Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) with its legislation enforced by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The UK is currently represented at the EASA by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the national aviation regulator. The creation of the ECAA removed


commercial restrictions and UK airlines operate 18


within the ECAA under all nine freedoms of the air, which provide the following rights: • First freedom: Flying over a foreign country without landing.


• Second freedom: Refuelling or carrying out maintenance in a foreign country without embarking or disembarking passengers or cargo.


• Third freedom: Flying from the home country and landing in a foreign country.


• Fourth freedom: Flying from a foreign country and landing in the home country.


• Fifth freedom: Flying from the home country to a foreign country, stopping in another foreign country on the way.


• Sixth freedom: Flying from a foreign country to another foreign country, stopping in the home country on the way.


• Seventh freedom: Flying from a foreign country to another foreign country, without stopping in the home country.


• Eighth freedom: Flying from the home country to a foreign country, then on to another destination within the same foreign country.


• Ninth freedom: Flying internally within a foreign country. In a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, the UK would no longer


be a member of the ECAA and therefore other arrangements would be necessary. The EU’s contingency measures include a


regulation to ensure basic air connectivity between the UK and the EU 27 by allowing UK air carriers the rights of Freedoms 1 to 4, and for a maximum of five months from the day following the day that the UK leaves the EU, all cargo services from the UK to an EU country and on to a country outside the EU (the fifth Freedom).


October 2019


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