Without help the horizon looks bleak for UK airlines

The writer is chief executive of Loganair

If you detect a strange droning noise in Britain’s skies tonight, it may well be the Ivchenko engines of a Russian-built 1960s cargo plane grinding towards Liverpool or Birmingham. Amid their roar, it might be easy to miss what it signifies — the lifeblood of the UK’s passenger charter and cargo industry draining away.

Few people have heard of Rubystar Airways, Vulkan Air or Raf-Avia. Yet all were granted permits last month by the Civil Aviation Authority to fly into the UK. Vulkan, a prolifically busy Ukrainian airline, was alone given permission to fly to Birmingham from within the EU, either from Bucharest via Liege or from Slovakia. As these airlines ply their trade, UK aircraft lie silent. Grounded pilots are at home on the taxpayer-funded furlough scheme. Some have temporary jobs as supermarket delivery drivers.

No doubt Vulkan Air’s excursions are warranted — perhaps they are flying in car parts to keep Midlands’ production lines open. But as the aviation sector faces the worst crisis in its history, it is hard to understand why UK airlines are not getting a fair share of the work. Essential NHS personal protective equipment is meanwhile landing from China and the US on Maltese-registered aircraft.

Airlines need permits to fly international routes. The CAA is dutifully granting these permits to overseas airlines, which pay flying visits to the UK. But British airlines seeking identical permits from many EU member states are being met with delays, demands for extra information or simply no response. It means that when time-sensitive needs arise to charter an aircraft — for instance to fly key workers or essential cargo — EU airlines can take the job far faster than UK counterparts.

Some EU states such as the Netherlands are taking an eminently reasonable approach by promptly issuing permits or offering a “season ticket” arrangement. The same cannot be said of others. In fact, the phones in the charter departments of the UK’s dwindling band of non-scheduled airlines stopped ringing on January 1. The brokers placing this work have decided it is too difficult and time-consuming to use UK airlines.

Another blockage comes from the arcane world of “non objections”, last seen in our skies 30 years ago, whereby EU carriers can simply object to a UK airline flying between their country and a third country. If a UK airline picks up a charter to fly between France and Morocco, the rights to fly between those countries are primarily reserved for French and Moroccan airlines. Post-Brexit, a UK carrier must seek agreement from airlines of both countries before it can obtain a permit, owing to the UK becoming a third country and no longer having the rights to fly from the EU to other nations.

Yet the UK has no equivalent structure, to object to foreign carriers flying into and out of the UK. If an overseas airline wants to fly between South Africa and the UK, it can simply apply to the CAA, speedily receive its permit and take off. Rubystar Airlines of Belarus, one of this week’s arrivals into Stansted, did just that — CAA permit number 24503, just in case you wondered.

The rules around leasing of aircraft between countries are just as convoluted and skewed against the UK. Titan Airways, which flies between the UK and Germany under a long-term contract to an Irish counterpart, was told it could no longer do so — EU restrictions mean UK carriers cannot lease their aircraft to EU carriers, even for flights originating in the UK. On the other hand EU carriers continue to be able to lease their aircraft into the UK without restriction, even for domestic UK operations.

The coronavirus pandemic has devastated airlines. Quarantine restrictions, travel bans and policy U-turns have reduced the growth of the aviation industry for decades to come. The Budget this week failed to “even mention aviation”, John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, pointed out. Combined with the intransigence and obstructions that UK carriers are facing abroad, the horizon looks bleak.

A coalition of UK airlines who depend on the charter market for part or all of their income — Titan Airways, Jota Aviation, AirTanker, CargoLogicAir and Loganair — is pressing parliament for rapid change. The rights to ensure a level playing field exist in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement to rectify this by reciprocating restrictions. The coalition is urgently asking the government to exercise these rights.

Barriers should not be erected without good cause. UK airlines and their EU counterparts should be able to fly freely and compete on an even footing for the same work. But if EU countries demand non-objection statements or delay granting permits to UK airlines, we must reciprocate, do the same as they do — and keep doing so until that forces change.