Aviation industry braces for Brexit with CEOs divided over fallout

Brussels

AT an aviation summit in Brussels this past week, Europe's main airlines put on a display of unity over the challenges ahead. But the industry's chief executive officers were divided when it came to the biggest issue of all: Brexit. The UK's scheduled departure from the European Union (EU) in March 2019 has provoked widely varying reactions from carriers in the 28-nation bloc.

At one extreme are dire flight-cancellation warnings by Ryanair Holdings Plc CEO Michael O'Leary and at the other is nonchalance by his counterpart at British Airways owner IAG SA, fellow Irishman Willie Walsh.