Will a no-deal Brexit affect my European flight transfer?

Q I have found some good flights from London Heathrow to Tokyo for June 2019 with KLM Airlines. But there is a transfer at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. How would a no-deal Brexit affect me?

I’m assuming that as I am flying into the EU and then out of the EU, I won’t be affected and I can stay international side at Schiphol, but I’m not sure. Would I also be able to claim from my travel insurance if they cancelled a flight in the event of a no deal?

James W

A As with so much to do with Brexit and travel, there is little certainty I can offer. However, I would book with confidence.

If the transition deal is agreed, the basic plan for travel (and much else) is that between 29 March 2019 and the end of 2020 the UK will be technically out of the European Union but things will continue as if Britain was still a member. There will be some minor drawbacks, such as the loss of the right to use European Economic Area fast-track lanes on arrival at passport control. But certainly from the perspective of flights on a Dutch airline via Amsterdam, there should be no impact on your intended itinerary.

Suppose there is no deal. You will have no bureaucracy problems, so long as you remain “airside” and have a passport valid for your final destination (for Japan there is no requirement to have any minimum validity on your passport). The only issue I can see is that the flights might be disrupted. This could happen in a couple of ways. First, there may be a kerfuffle as the airlines and airports adjust to the post-Brexit world where many of the old certainties have disappeared – such as UK passport holders getting guaranteed access to European Union nations. I imagine, though, any disruption would take place immediately after the UK’s departure and it should be calm by June.

Next, the EU might place significant restrictions on UK airlines’ activities. Hypothetically British Airways might be allowed to continue to fly from Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris to Heathrow, but not to sell onward connections to the UK or Asia.

Again hypothetically, the British government could respond by imposing a similar restriction on KLM, Air France, Lufthansa and so on. But I think that is extremely unlikely. The damage caused to UK travellers by a no-deal Brexit will already be so substantial – from tougher motoring rules to the end of EHIC cards – that I cannot see a British government deliberately making things even worse for its citizens.

To answer your last point: would insurance cover any Brexit-related disruption? Again, we don’t know. This is all unknown territory. But I wouldn’t bank on it.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder