Will Brexit halt my Budapest flight?

Q I have booked myself on a flight departing from Gatwick to Budapest with Wizz Air on 6 April – just after Brexit. This is a new route for them and only goes operational at the end of March. Looking at what you have written, it looks to me that flights will be capped at 2018 levels in the event of a no-deal Brexit. So will new flight routes be allowed to fly and, if not, why are airlines openly selling them?

I’ve contacted Wizz Air but they just say if the flight gets cancelled I’ll be compensated. That won’t help me as I have subsequent onwards travel and have booked all my accommodation. To transfer me onto an alternative flight to Budapest would cost me more, too.

Would you have faith booking a new flight route just post-Brexit? Or should I book again on an established route?

Sarah McD

A Your confusion is understandable given the complexity of aviation and Brexit.

In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the number of flights on British airlines this summer between the UK and the European Union will be capped at the numbers prevailing in the summer of 2018. If there were 200 flights a week on UK airlines to Hungary last year, there could be no more than 200 this year.

With airlines announcing many new routes and increased frequencies for summer 2019, the implication is that some flights currently on sale would be cancelled. The process for how this would happen is not clear.

But since Wizz Air is a company based in Hungary, an EU nation, the likelihood of disruption is much lower. I foresee problems with Wizz Air and other “EU-not-UK” carriers such as Ryanair only in the unlikely event that the British government decides to respond to the Brussels limit with a tit-for-tat rule.

The UK could theoretically cap flights on non-UK airlines at 2018. But given the government’s repeated insistence that nothing will change for airline passengers after Brexit, this appears an unlikely outcome. So I would look forward to your trip to Budapest with confidence.

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