BA owner warned it will have no special treatment after Brexit

The EU’s top transport official has signalled she will not bend Europe’s laws to help IAG, the Anglo-Spanish airline group that risks falling foul of post-Brexit ownership rules, if the UK crashes out of the bloc without a deal. Violeta Bulc, EU transport commissioner, said that there was no reason for airlines to be caught out by a hard Brexit, since they have had fair warning to make sure their corporate arrangements fit EU rules. These stipulate that European carriers must be more than 50% EU-owned and controlled. Some companies — including IAG, which owns British Airways — have yet to ensure they will reach the threshold after Brexit, when UK nationals will no longer count towards the tally. Those who fail to do so would risk losing their EU operating rights. The risk of a hard Brexit “has been known since the first day the British people voted to exit . . . We’ve been asking everyone to take it seriously and to prepare for different scenarios,” Bulc said. “If there is no deal [between the EU and UK], I don’t need to point out which side the EU will be on,” she said. “It’s Spain that we will have in mind.” Bulc gave no further details, but her spokesman later said that in the case of “conflicting interests” after Brexit, the transport commissioner would help EU authorities to bring European airlines’ “ownership and control structures in line with EU law”.<br/>