Spain lines up Brexit backup plan to keep tourist planes flying

Spain will have a backup plan in place to shield its tourism industry from any disruption to air travel caused by Brexit regardless of the outcome of talks between the UK and the EU, Deputy Minister for European Affairs Jorge Toledo said. Airlines tend to make their flight plans one year advance, so Spain still has about four months to see if a back-up plan will be necessary, with the U.K. planning to leave in March 2019, Toledo said in an interview Thursday in Madrid. If the plan the EU is working on doesn’t come through, Spain will have one of its own so that UK tourists can keep coming, he said. “If there isn’t an agreement, then we will have a plan B ready,” said Toledo, 52. “It would be necessary to work on a European solution but also on a national-based solution.” With negotiations over Britain’s departure stalled, Spain is taking steps to protect a tourism industry that drew 18 million Britons last year. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary warned in August that airlines would be “screaming blue murder” next year if a wide-ranging deal on aviation isn’t reached to stop flights to and from the UK being grounded as a result of Brexit. Spanish officials like Toledo are taking care to stress the importance of commercial links with the UK. While Spain fully supports the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, a collapse of the talks would be disruptive in Spain because of the tourism and commercial links and the role played by Spanish firms including Banco Santander SA and Iberdrola SA in the UK economy.<br/>