Boost for State-owned regional airports
However, Ryanair, Europe’s premier low-cost airline, is not in favour of the plan published yesterday in Brussels.
Under the new proposals any state-owned regional airport with less than five million passengers a year will be able to pay an airline between 30% and 50% of the start up costs on a new route.
The funds will be restricted to staff and aircraft operating costs and will be limited to the first five years of the new service.
All of Ireland’s regional airports have less than five million passengers a year.
Director of Cork Airport, Joe O’Connor, welcomed the proposal and said it could be a big help to new routes while they built up passenger numbers.
However, the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) of which Ryanair is a member disagrees with the proposal on the basis that it still applies different rules to publicly and privately owned airports.
“The airlines, the regional airports and the regions have cautioned the Commission not to impose restrictions on publicly owned airports that do not apply to private operators.
"However, this is exactly what they are proposing. It would place public airports at a serious competitive disadvantage and would undermine competition from low fares airlines and limit consumer choice”, ELFAA’s secretary general, Jan Skeels, said.
