Transport minister insists UK will get ‘open air’ deal with EU
New transport minister Lord Callanan pledged yesterday that the current UK government would remain ‘pro-travel’.
In his first public speech, he told the ABTA Travel Matters conference that securing ‘the best access to EU aviation markets’ was a key part of Brexit negotiations.
"Let me make one thing perfectly clear, amid all the change, all the inevitable uncertainty, this will remain a pro-travel government," he said.
One week after Brexit negotiations with the EU began, Callanan said he was confident the UK would achieve an ‘open liberal arrangement’ with the EU as the UK has the biggest aviation market in Europe.
However, Miriam Gonzalez, a partner with international law firm Miriam Dechert and wife of former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, warned the conference that the UK had far fewer experienced negotiators than the EU and that the government was scrambling to build a team with enough expertise.
She said David Davis, who is leading the UK’s Brexit negotiating team, hasn’t been involved in Europe since the creation of the EU Single Market. He has to go up against the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. "He knows his stuff, he has been there for yeas. We have an imbalance," said Gonzalez.
However, Callanan said the UK wasn’t purely focused on getting a deal with the EU. Citing new air service agreements to allow more flights between China and India and the UK, he said it was also important for the UK to establish links with growing economies outside the EU.
"That is why we supported the new Heathrow runway," he said. "Increasingly our airports have been overtaken by others and unless we get this runway built that slide could continue." Callanan said that a third runway would enable the UK to ‘grow travel links for decades to come’.
Addressing ABTA’s concerns that proposals for the third runway were not included in the Queen’s Speech, Callanan said that was only because it did not require new legislation.
He said good progress was being made on analysing the 70,000 responses to the public consultation on Heathrow’s expansion, and the next step will be announced ‘shortly’.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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