Government response: Secretary of State letter to the aviation industry

You may have seen the article on the front page of the Sunday Times yesterday (16 December 2018). I hope you will also have seen the very strong rebuttal from No 10 which followed this story. I wanted to write to you today to provide some further reassurance and to be clear on our position.

As you will already be aware, both the UK and the EU have made clear their desire to ensure flights between the UK and EU continue in any scenario. I believe both the UK and the EU have a determination to retain the aviation links which bring such significant economic and cultural benefits for both sides.

Indeed the UK made this clear in its technical notice on air services for flights to and from the UK published on 24 September. And the EU set out its intention to ensure this outcome in a Commission communication on 13 November.

This department fully recognises the importance of giving passengers and businesses confidence to book their holidays and business trips to and from the EU after Brexit.

So as I mentioned at the last industry roundtable, we are exploring what communications will be needed to provide that reassurance. I would like to continue to work with you on precisely this in the coming days.

I hope this provides you with some reassurance and look forward to further discussions with you in the coming weeks and months.