Charles Alcock is managing editor of the AIN Media Group, having rejoined the company in 2019. He has been an aviation journalist since 1986, and previously worked for AIN from 1990 to 2017, most recently as editor-in-chief. His main focus is on covering new aviation technology and business models, as well as international news.
Having been raised in the London area, Alcock studied at the University of Manchester in the UK and earned an honors degree in Politics and Modern History. He speaks English and French, and some German.

Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

The European Commission could institute new restrictions on the UK’s air transport industry in retaliation for the British government’s efforts to circumvent some aspects of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, according to the U.S. government’s special envoy for Northern Ireland, Mick Mulvaney. Speaking during a recent webinar organized by the Institute of International and European Affairs, Mulvaney claimed Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney had told him that the European Union (EU) could use air transport as a means to discourage the UK from using its controversial Internal Market Bill to undermine legally&nbsp;binding agreements covering the border between the UK and Ireland at the conclusion of the Brexit transition period, which ends&nbsp;Dec. 31, 2020.

 


In a summary of comments reported by Irish broadcaster RTE on Thursday, Mulvaney commented: “There may be an interconnection between [EU] state aid [rules] and commercial transportation. What I took away from the meeting [with Coveney] was that British Airways continues to want to fly from London to the Continent and if the Europeans got really, really upset they could make BA’s life very difficult.”

 


Talks between the UK and the EU over trade arrangements to apply at the end of the Brexit transition period appear to have reached a stalemate. In anticipation of a possible “hard-Brexit” scenario in which no trade terms are agreed upon, the UK’s Conservative government passed an Internal Market Bill that it intends to use to nullify agreements covering the UK border with Ireland. The EU has protested this move, complaining that it is in breach of international law.

 


Ireland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged that aviation was discussed during a meeting between Mulvaney and Coveney in late September. However, it has denied that Coveney had implied that aviation arrangements might be used as a threat to force the UK to fully comply with the Withdrawal Agreement.

 


The UK government is eager to reach a new post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S. These talks also appear to be stalled, in part due to the current presidential election. Democratic Party leaders have publicly stated that they oppose the Internal Market Bill and any attempts by the UK government to, as they see it, undermine the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

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