Without Brexit's agreement, the extended controls and small airports threatened?

The hypothesis of a Brexit without an agreement imposes on airports in France a risk of controls "at five or six stages" and long waits, with a particular unknown for the small structures which depend on the British traffic, worries the President of the French Airports Union.

Five or six steps between the EU and the UK?

In case of "hard Brexit", "it is possible that there are five or six stages" to enter the European space, predicts Thomas Juin.

"The control of the pbadport (…), the taking of fingerprints, the questioning about the purpose of the trip, the place of stay, the financial means of the traveler, a possible thorough check in an isolated space in the airport and the checking of the baggage, plus the visa, even if the conditions of obtaining will be simplified ".

"And to get out of the European territory, says the president of the UAF, which also manages the airport of La Rochelle-Ile de Ré, there will be in addition a procedure of tax refund at the customs because the English will recover the VAT This may exceed two hours of waiting … "

Therefore, it will require three separate areas: for control, for isolated control and for duty free zone. "It will have a cost" for airports, warns Mr. June.

According to him, without prior agreement on the Brexit by March 29, "there should be a transitional period until December 2020 to continue in the current configuration, the time to adapt to changes."

In order to avoid the total interruption of air traffic between the EU and the United Kingdom, the European Commission adopted in December two measures to ensure "basic connectivity", however not comparable to the conditions of the Single European Sky.

Small airports particularly affected

But these measures will come into effect only if London grants equivalent rights to EU air carriers.

In France the "British traffic", that is to say the pbadengers of a flight coming or going to the United Kingdom, whatever the nationality, represents 13,5 million people, that is to say 6.8% of the traffic , according to UAF figures for 2017.

But the smaller the airport, the more this share increases. At Paris-Charles de Gaulle (69 million pbadengers), it is about 6%. For Nice (13.8 million) Bordeaux or Nantes, "it is already 15%, stresses Mr. June And for local airports, it is huge: 49% in La Rochelle (out of 221 000 pbadengers), 82% in Chambéry (out of 186,000), 90% in Limoges (out of 308,667 pbadengers) ".

However, "the survival of small airports is not at stake," said June. "The first ones that could warn of a decrease in the number of pbadengers are the airlines through the bookings, but there is nothing in this sense".

But after 2020 and the end of a transitional period? "I do not know," he concedes. "It's very much about the macro-economy, the English with ties to France will come back, but what will be the state of the UK economy and its impact on bookings?" I do not know. "