Gatwick boss Stewart Wingate in call for urgent certainty on Brexit as airline tickets begin to sell for 2019

Gatwick boss Stewart Wingate said yesterday he was confident that aviation was a top Brexit priority for the Department for Transport (DfT), but warned time was ticking and certainty was needed for the industry.

Speaking at the London Infrastructure Summit, Wingate said he was satisfied that from a Brexit point of view, the DfT’s “number one priority” is air travel rights.

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“But obviously it’s the number one priority for the Department of Transport that then has to be ramped up in the overall Brexit negotiations,” he added, with the industry reflecting the urgency by citing the very long lead times that airlines have on selling tickets.

Passengers are already starting to buy tickets for 2019, with Britain set to leave the European Union in March that year, and Gatwick’s chief executive said it was imperative for governments on both sides “to actually sort this out”.

Wingate joined bosses from London Stansted, London City and Heathrow, in reiterating calls for greater certainty.

“I’m very encouraged that the industry as a whole in the UK is standing shoulder to shoulder and is presenting a unified face to government, to say that what we need more than anything is certainty for the future of aviation flying rights once Brexit happens,” Wingate said.

London Stansted chief executive Ken O’Toole warned that with “the implications of Brexit beginning to bite”, Britain’s aviation industry needed to be firing on all cylinders.

He called for a “robust” transitional deal to be put in place, while Heathrow’s chief strategy officer Andrew Macmillan added that it should be “passenger friendly and cargo friendly”, and needed to be drawn up “as quickly as we can get to that”.

The DfT has noted that alternative arrangements will be required for air services to or from EU member states, as well as the US and Canada, when the UK leaves the bloc. It has underlined that “new arrangements are a top priority”.

The government has also said aviation is “absolutely crucial” to the UK’s economy and that it is committed to getting the right deal for Britain.

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