Will no deal affect my Cyprus trip?

Q We are booked to fly to Cyprus on British Airways on 3 April and I am now worried about the effect of a no-deal Brexit, a few days earlier, on our flights. I understand that you have written that some flights may be cancelled.

My husband says it will all be fine, because only summer flights will be affected. I’m not so sure. What’s the situation?

Julia F

A Travel organisations and the Department for Transport are assuring passengers they can “book with confidence”, and that in the event of a no deal “flights will continue as normal”.

Flights will certainly continue: the European Commission confirmed this shortly before Christmas. But that does not mean that every flight currently on sale will actually take off. With a no-deal Brexit, flights on UK airlines to each EU country will be capped at summer 2018 levels. So if there were 200 flights a week on British carriers to Cyprus last summer, there can be no more than 200 a week in 2019. As there are additional flights planned by UK airlines to many EU countries, including Cyprus, if the cap took effect some would need to be cancelled to comply.

In the airline world, summer starts on the last Sunday in March: this year, on 31 March. In theory any flight on a UK airline to Europe after that date could be affected. But I imagine that in the event of a cap being applied, each airline would be told to limit its flights to each country to 2018 numbers. British Airways is not planning to increase capacity to Cyprus in 2019, so there is every likelihood your flight will go ahead as booked.

Just make sure your passports are valid for six months, as the government recommends. The UK is giving back control on access to the European Union, and as third-country nationals British travellers will have to comply with minimum validity rules.

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