Ryanair will take action against competitors
On the eve of the European Commission ruling that Ryanair broke subsidy rules to receive illegal state aid from Belgium’s Charleroi airport, the airline is threatening legal action against competitors that fly into State-owned airports.
Insisting upon a level playing pitch, Michael O’Leary’s airline is calling upon the commission to clarify if the ruling against it will result in all other airlines being affected by state aid rules.
The commission will rule tomorrow that Ryanair benefited from illegal subsidies from Charleroi and force the airline to pay back up to E4 million of State aid received over several years.
But if the commission does not enforce the ruling upon other airlines, then Ryanair will initiate its own legal proceedings against airlines and airports.
Aside from appealing the decision, Ryanair will take cases and make complaints against every other airline flying into every State airport which offers concessions and discounts, but say it shouldn’t come to that.
“At the end of the day, it has got to be a level playing pitch for each of them,” a spokesperson said.
Ryanair says the ruling will have negative implications anyway for other low fares airlines as the Commission will be ruling out discounts in airport landing charges.
According to a Ryanair spokesperson, the European Commission decision will result in higher fares for consumers by forcing low fares airlines to pay higher costs.
“This will reverse 20 years of competition, deregulation and low-fare air travel which has been so dramatically successful within the EU, and has seen the growth of a wide number of low fares airlines which today carry over 70 million passengers annually,” the spokesperson said.
“The principal beneficiary of this decision will be Europe’s high fare carriers, all of whom will welcome the imposition of increased costs at airports and higher fares on low fares airlines.”
Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said he did not think the issue of action arises as the ruling will not only affect only his company.
“If we are expected to play on a level playing pitch, it won’t just be us,” he said.
Defending the airline’s policy of charging a levy to passengers for wheelchairs, Mr Cawley said the airline will stop the levy “as soon as we win the appeal”.
