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Ryanair will sell plane tickets for summer 2019 ahead of Brexit, but they may have to cancel the flights if no aviation deal is reached for the UK.
The potential hurdle was revealed by Ryanair’s Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs yesterday during a press conference.
Asked about the impact of Brexit on Ryanair, Kenny said the flights – released this September – will be “subject to regulatory enviornment”.
“The summer schedule will have a term and conditions saying this is subject to regulatory environment.”
It becomes a clause of the way the ticket is sold that if the flight is cancelled you’ll get a refund
The summer schedule runs from April 1 2019 – after the Brexit cut off date.
Asked what that would mean for customers, Kenny said: “It becomes a clause of the way the ticket is sold that if the flight is cancelled you’ll get a refund.”
Airlines based within the EU are allowed to fly freely between the EU and the US under the Open Skies Agreement.
However, no such agreement has been agreed for the UK yet: “Nothing has changed,” said Kenny.
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He added: “It’s still April 2019, there’s still no alternative to open skies.”
Kenny said he thought that a solution to open skies would at some point be worked out, however he predicted it might require an “extension”.
“I suspect the aviation industry will be given an extension for us to work out open skies.
“We’re calling on Brussels and the uk government to give us a regulatory condition.”
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This stance compares to August 2 2017, when Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary threatened to take flights off sale in September 2018 if an Open Skies agreement wasn’t reached by that time.
Earlier last year, on February 16 2017, O’Leary threatened to cut all flights to Europe after Brexit.
In the mean time, Ryanair will be applying for a UK air operator license.
This will protect its routes within the UK in the event of a hard Brexit.
