Ryanair axed 12 UK domestic and international routes on Monday in a dispute with the Civil Aviation Authority.
Europe’s largest budget carrier said its UK arm had agreed to Brexit contingency arrangements with the CAA two years ago, but new regulatory barriers had been introduced on Sunday, 10 days before the Brexit transition period ends.
Ryanair did not detail what policy changes had rendered the operation of the routes “impossible” but blamed CAA “bureaucracy”.
The cancelled routes include internal flights and services to Morocco and Ukraine including departures from Stansted, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Belfast and Derry.
The CAA hit back, saying it was incorrect for Ryanair to claim that it has changed its aircraft wet-leasing policy at short notice.
The authority’s consumers and markets director Paul Smith said: “It has been our long-standing position that a UK airline with a significant presence in the UK, such as Ryanair UK does, should not rely heavily on using wet-leased, foreign-registered aircraft to undertake their operations.
“Doing so undermines the competitiveness of the UK aviation industry and the effectiveness of the regulatory regime.
“This is a view shared by regulators around the world and has nothing to do with our preparations for the end of the transition period, which we have planned for extensively.
“The decision to cancel these flights was taken by Ryanair alone. We will continue to engage with the airline on these matter as we seek to act in the best interest of consumers.”
The CAA issued Ryanair UK with an Air Operator’s Certificate in January 2019, which the Irish carrier said at the time would allow it to operate its small domestic service and UK to non-EU routes post-Brexit.
The UK unit has only one aircraft on the UK register out of a fleet of more than 470 aircraft.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “Ryanair UK had agreed Brexit contingency arrangements with the CAA two years ago and cannot comply with its new and impractical requirements at 10 days’ notice.
“We wish to ensure that UK consumers can continue to avail of Ryanair’s wide choice of destinations and Europe’s lowest fares after Brexit.
“Sadly, the CAA does not share our vision for the UK’s connectivity and would rather have airlines jump through new unnecessary hoops while consumers face less choice, less competition and higher fares.”