The UK's largest budget airline, EasyJet is to set up a new airline based in Vienna, Austria to relaunch the airline after UK leaves the European Union.
According to current regulation an airline must have an air operator certificate in an EU member country to allow it to continue flying between any EU member states. Therefore, if the regulations stay the same as they are now, Easyjet want a new EU based airline to continue to operate their current schedules without interruption.
EasyJet said its application was "well advanced" and believes it will receive its licence in the "near future". The budget airline will have also is EU based aircraft registered in Austria and plans for all its 140 UK aircraft to be re-registered in Austria by the end of 2021.
At the moment Easyjet claim that all UK staff are safe in their jobs stating that the establishment of "EasyJet Europe will create a number of new jobs in Austria, but no jobs will move from the UK to Austria. All of easyJet’s UK employees will continue to be based in Luton and our 11 UK bases and employed as they are today." However the future is looking very uncertain, new employment contracts are changing and the airline is seeking more Europe based staff.
EasyJet already has an airline based in Switzerland, as well as its UK operation. The parent company - EasyJet PLC - will retain its London Stock Exchange listing and its Luton headquarters. Yet according to airline insiders advise that internal investigations have already taken place for a complete relaunch of the company on the DAX exchange. The airline is already EU majority owned and plans to stay that way after the launch of EasyJet Europe.
EasyJet senior management have been very vocal of their opposition of Brexit, both before and after the UK's referendum and have previously warned they would pull out of the UK as a result of the UK's exit from the EU.