Open skies deal 'increasingly important' for Portugal tourism, urges UK ambassador

Kirsty Hayes told delegates at Aito’s overseas conference in the Portuguese city of Evora last week that the expanded services of low-cost carriers, such as easyJet and Monarch, in recent years had helped to fuel UK visitors to the country.

“Sadly we lost Monarch this year but a number of other carriers still want to fly and at the moment, their ability to operate between Portugal and the UK is governed by the [Maastricht Treaty],” she said. “The ability of people to easily visit other nations with low levels of bureaucracy is very important.”

Hayes, who has held her post since August 2014, admitted that for the travel sector surrounding Brexit “there is a lot of uncertainty and that is not good when you are trying to run a business”.

Although she promised delegates that she believed whatever the outcome of ongoing Brexit negotiations "British people will continue to visit Portugal [post-Brexit] and the Portuguese people will still want British tourists.”