Ryanair UK (RK, London Stansted) has been granted an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) by the British Civil Aviation Authority.
"We welcome the Civil Aviation Authority’s decision to grant our UK based airline, Ryanair UK, with a UK AOC, allowing Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) to operate UK domestic routes and UK to non-EU routes in a post-Brexit environment," Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer Juliusz Komorek said.
The new unit has already taken delivery of its first B737-800, G-RUKA (msn 44687), Skyliner Aviation has reported. The Boeing narrowbody, transferred from its parent, underwent re-registration at London Stansted but is yet to be deployed under the new registration.
The British carrier is the third fully owned operator in the low-cost carrier group, after the Irish parent and Ryanair Sun (Warsaw Modlin) in Poland.
Ryanair said that while the British AOC would allow it to continue operating within, to, and from the UK in case of a no-deal Brexit on March 29, 2019, it still calls for a negotiated transition deal. After the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, the current open skies arrangement will cease to apply to the UK. As such, non-UK-registered carriers could face obstacles in serving the UK-EU market thereafter.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, the UK is one of Ryanair's key markets. For the week starting on January 7, 2019, 17.81% of all seats sold by the LCC are for departures out of the UK. Stansted alone is Ryanair's largest origin airport with an 8.71% share by capacity. In addition to international flights, the LCC also operates 154 weekly domestic flights within the UK.
The establishment of a UK-based unit by Ryanair follows the strategy earlier adopted by its low-cost rival Wizz Air with Wizz Air UK (W9, London Luton).
