.
A colleague got the following reply from Dame Deidre Hutton, the head of the CAA. She says of the licencing confusion (these are quotes from the letter):
a. She understands that the industry requires clarity over the future if their licences, but she cannot give any.
b. She strongly advises stakeholders (p.c. office-speak for pilots and engineers) to make their own contingency arrangements.
c. She hopes to be able to give more information to stakeholders (pilots and engineers) in a few months time.
d. UK CAA licences are ICAO compliant and will remain valid internationally - on UK aicraft (only).
And if Britain crashes out of the EU and EASA...
e. UK licence holders will be able to apply to EASA states for a validation of their UK licence (to fly EASA aircraft - like all those Austrian registered Easy A320s). However, it will be up to that state to decide if it wants to issue a validation or not. ie - no guarantees, guys.
f. Aircrew can only hold one EASA licence (as we know). However, post Brexit you will be able to hold an EASA and a UK licence. But you cannot hold two licence before March 29th. (Which does not answer the question of whether you can keep a frozen UK ATPL, and then unfreeze it after March 29th.).
g. If you hold an EASA licence you will be able to apply for a 12 month UK validation. But each application will be dealt with individually. ie - no guarantees, guys.
In other words, some two years after the Brexit vote, the CAA has still not made any contingency plans. They could, for instance, have guaranteed UK validations of EASA licences for previous UK licence holders. They could have ensured that your UK licence will be held frozen, so it can be resurrected if necessary later. They could have gone to EASA and hammered out an agreement to stay within the broarder confines of the EASA community. But no, they appear to have done nothing.
As an aside, Dame Hutton’s previous experience was as an apartheid demonstrator, the Arts Council, a housing association, Future Farming, Food Safety, another Arts Council, the Dental Association, Consumer Council, Sustainable Development Commission, Environmental Protection and Thames Water. She was crowned the Quango Queen by the press. And with such a broad experience in technology and transport, you can see why the Labour party would see Dame Deirdre as the perfect candidate to control Britain’s aviation industry.....
ST