It's no lie that the UK will lose all access rights to the US under the current EU/US open skies agreement on March 30, 2019 - or whatever date it leaves the EU - unless the coughing lady climbs down and accepts the oversight of the ECJ. If the UK doesn't commit to remaining party to that agreement - which is a consequence no-one voted for - it would have to then negotiate a new bilateral air services agreement with the US - which it cannot do until after it ceases to be an EU member.
Airlines for America, whose members include American Airlines, Southwest and United, said there was a particular pressure to get an aviation deal agreed because the sector did not have historic rules to fall back on in the event the UK and EU cannot strike a Brexit deal.
“If there is no agreement between the UK and EU by March 2019, other sectors fall back on World Trade Organisation rules but we have no legal framework under which to fly,” Nick Calio, the trade body’s chief executive, said.
“Divorce proceedings have just started but the negotiators have a lot of issues to deal with and our concern is aviation getting lost in a sea of very important issues. The EU wants to negotiate one large agreement without splitting things out but we believe you have to separate aviation.”