Operational disruption and changes to security regimes at European airports in the event of a ‘hard Brexit’ would hit pax dwell time and retail spending in some instances, ACI Europe has warned.

Excerpts from a private memo leaked to Sky News and verified by TRBusiness claim that problems would be caused by additional security and screening to process more than six million transfer passengers travelling on UK-originating flights through the EU27/EEA and Swiss airports to other flights.

The memo from the European airports body is addressed to Pascal Leardini at the European Commission, dated September 2018.

It suggests that as a result, these passengers would have less time to browse airports before transferring onto their flights, resulting in a ‘negative impact’ to commercial revenues such as retail and food & beverage.

Changes in security regimes for UK-originating passengers transferring through European airports would result in less browsing and shopping time, says the leaked memo.

PRESERVING THE ‘ONE-STOP SECURITY’ REGIME

It adds that the sheer volume of UK originating passengers transferring at EU27/EEA and Swiss airports onto other flights are significant at a number of hubs including Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Brussels, Zurich, Copenhagen, Helsinki and others.

The basis of the memo, which follows an earlier letter sent to Brussels’ Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier, argues for ‘adequate contingencies’ in aviation between the EU27 and the UK and the preservation of the ‘one-stop security’ regime for all flights within Europe.

However, the memo clarifies that while changes would impact those major EU hubs, it would not affect UK airports.

Under current EU law and the Schengen Agreement, passengers travelling across the EU/EEA & Switzerland enjoy freedom of travel (for countries party to those arrangements).

Non-aeronautical revenue generation is crucial to the performances and economies of airports as a means of offsetting aviation charges.

Retail, duty free and F&B sources of income become more important in a climate where, according to ACI Europe, 47% of airports in Europe are loss-making and 76% of those serving one million passengers per year are in the red at a time of rampant capacity demand.

Eurocontrol estimates that there will be a 53% lift in flight movements between now and 2040, with approximately 1.5m flights serving 160m unable to fly by 2040 if capacity constraints are not appropriately addressed.