The United Kingdom's big discount airlines are warning a “Brexit” vote could spell the end of rock-bottom holiday fares between the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.
Among those is easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who said Tuesday it’s “very possible” those routes will become more expensive if the United Kingdom votes to leave Europe in the so-called Brexit referendum this Thursday.
"It is certainly not my place to tell people how to vote, but it is very possible that -- in a post-Brexit Europe -- a more restrictive aviation environment would mean fewer flights from the UK to Europe and hence less competition between airlines,” Haji-Ioannou says to the Daily Mail. “That in turn would mean higher air fares so that the price of a family holiday to the (Mediteranean) will go back up again to levels last seen in the 1980s.”
Reuters has already reported easyJet may try to set up a separate business unit on mainland Europe in the event that Brexit forces win the referendum.
The CEO of Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier and one of the biggest in the world overall, also has voiced support to “Remain."
“One of the great things that EU has delivered is low-fare air traffic,” Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary – often a harsh critic of Brussels – said in a May interview to Bloomberg News. “We fundamentally believe it’s in the U.K.’s best interests to stay.”
Ryanair is based in Ireland, but flights from the U.K. accounts for much of the airline's business.
easyJet and Ryanair were early in a wave of discounters that began to popularize budget airline travel in Europe on a large scale beginning in the 1990s. Early on, those carriers emulated Southwest’s business model that worked well in the U.S.. However, both Ryanair and easyJet offered fewer frills and set fares that dropped to just a few dollars during some of their most over-the-top sales. Historically, each has struggled with reputations for unyielding customer-service policies and a long list of fees -- years before the latter become widespread in the USA.
Today, joined by newer entrants like Norwegian and Hungary’s Wizz Air, such budget carriers now carry a sizable chunk of intra-European travelers.
Haji-Ioannou reiterated opposition to Brexit in comments quoted by the Telegraph, saying: "An open skies policy in Europe has been good for travellers, good for airline employees and, yes, good for shareholders. Let's keep it that way."
