Spain has Plan B for post Brexit flights from the UK

UK expats and tourists won’t be blocked by Brexit from travelling to Spain due to a backup bilateral aviation deal between the two countries.

The best news in a while for UK expats in Spain, Brits still planning on relocating and British tourists is that Spain is more than happy to make a deal with the UK to keep flights coming post-Brexit. According to Jorge Toledo, Spain’s Deputy Manager for European Affairs, in the event an EU/UK aviation deal is blocked, Spain will be more than happy to make its own deal with the UK on flights between the two countries.

‘If there’s no agreement, we’ll go ahead with Plan B’ he said, adding there would have to be joint solutions, one for Europe and the rest nationally-based. Spain now has around four months to wait before it becomes necessary to make the decision to go ahead with Plan B, as airlines normally make flight plans around one year in advance. Obviously, Spain needs to protect its vastly remunerative tourism industry which brings some 18 million Britons to its shores every year.

The country’s huge expat community is also important to the Spanish economy, especially as, in spite of the threat of Brexit, Brits are still queuing up to live, work or retire in the country. At least one low-cost airline might have been in a heads-up situation as regards the above good news, as Icelandic carrier Primera Air’s newly announced routes to Mallorca and Malaga from Birmingham will start in May next year, just under a year before the Brexit divorce date of March 2019.

The new routes will add to Primera’s existing Toronto, Boston and New York routes from Birmingham’s international airport, and are expected to run daily to the new destinations. Prices will start at just £35, will operate by Boeing 737-800 aircraft and seem to be taking over from the recently cancelled Norwegian Airlines routes.