A lot of people forget some of the benefits. Not only the commonality in licensing (does anyone remember what a hassle and how costly that used to be?). But there are tons of mainly Eastern European aircraft, happily flying in the UK, whose type certificate got grandfathered in. Types you could never ever have flown, owned or been able to use before. Yak's, Let's, Sukhoi's, Antonov's, PZL's, Aero's etc. But not only Eastern ones: Auster's, Miles's and all the old quirky British ones if you live somewhere else but the UK, as well.
A dream future would be that FAA and EASA give up licensing/certification to ICAO so that we have one type certification and one licensing body worldwide. Never gonna happen, but that would be the ideal solution.
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 18th May 2013 at 13:51.