One Air (HC, London Heathrow) - the United Kingdom's sole operator of B747 freighters - is lobbying the new labour administration in Westminster to establish a bilateral agreement with the European Union to ease post-Brexit bottlenecks. These include difficulties hiring pilots and engineers and accessing maintenance facilities due to the UK's exit from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

In an interview with Air Cargo News, non-executive director Paul Simmons revealed the lack of reciprocity in professional qualifications between the UK and EU following Brexit has led to increased costs and operational inefficiencies for One Air, impacting its growth and operations. Simmons believes the lack of mutual recognition is a bureaucratic oversight and has urged swift policy changes.

"There's no real reason we can see why there is no reciprocity between the UK Civil Aviation's qualifications and licensing arrangements for engineers and pilots and engineering facilities and the EASA's. They were the same standard until Brexit. It's causing an impediment to growth," he remarked. "The reason it's caused a problem for us, in particular, is that we are the only 747 operator in the UK. The pool of engineers, pilots, training and engineering facilities has decreased markedly in the UK."

One Air obtained its air operator's certificate (AOC) from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) in April 2023, followed by its operating licence in May 2023. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, it owns two B747-400(BDSF)s. G-ONEE (msn 24998) has been in maintenance at Frankfurt Hahn, Germany, since June 23; while G-UNET (msn 25075) operates charters out of Nottingham East Midlands to Muscat, Oman, and Hong Kong International, ADS-B data shows.

Further fleet growth is on the cards. "We are looking at expanding the fleet and see a future which has a mix of 747s and other aircraft," Simmons disclosed.

One Air also plans to increase its operations to Hong Kong to daily flights and obtain a long-term operational license for flights to China. It obtained a two-year operating permit from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in May 2023 for cargo charters between the US and the UK. Simmons said scheduled operations are being considered, but this depends on the speed of growth.