The story wasn’t new. It repeated a warning that Ryanair has been shouting about for months – that unless an agreement on Open Skies is secured, then the UK could witness a 41% fall in passenger demand between March 2018 and March 2019. That means the loss of 8.1 million bookings between the UK and EU.
Coming in the same week that latest figures showed net migration had fallen to its lowest level for three years following a surge in the number of EU nationals leaving the UK since the Brexit vote last year, it made for rather worrying reading. When you add in the restrictions on employing UK staff in Europe that may emerge, at the risk of sounding like a Remoaner, combined together these points are undeniably concerning.
Employing EU staff is key for companies across travel, including the thousands of Brits employed by the UK travel industry working abroad in Europe.
A report released earlier this month by the European Tourism Association (Etoa) quizzed 100 of its UK members as to how they would cope if they had to recruit all non-UK EU staff using a formal immigration procedure. Almost half (49%) said they would see productivity “greatly reduced”. Even more concerning, around 20% of Etoa’s members said they were thinking of relocating their head office to an EU country.
Such reports will likely be dismissed by Brexiteers as alarmist and scaremongering. The problem is, when they keep being repeated by senior figures from across the business world, they become harder to ignore.
MPs will be returning from their holidays ahead of the reconvening of parliament on September 5. The shockingly poor exchange rate will have reminded them of the need to start getting on with the Brexit negotiations. The worrisome reports greeting them will be a sharp indication of what could happen if they don’t.
