Ryanair, today (Tuesday 10 July), in an unprecedented announcement, said it will sue the European Commission (EC) in the European Courts for alleged repeated failure to take action regarding state assistance involving Air France, Lufthansa, Alitalia and Olympic Airways, which were submitted to the Commission over a year ago.
The Irish airline says that these grievances involved hundreds of millions of Euros of what it calls ”illegal state aids” being granted by the French, German, Italian and Greek governments to subsidise their flag carrier airlines. Ryanair says it has called on the Commission several times to investigate these claims, the Commission failing to do so.
It remains to be seen whether Ryanair actually goes ahead with the action but in the meantime Ryanair”s head of regulatory affairs, Jim Callaghan, is adamant that the airline has a case. "This is another example of the Commission”s twin track approach to state aid,” he said.
”On one hand they refuse to take action against serious violations of the state aid rules by national governments to protect their flag carrier airlines like Air France, Lufthansa, Alitalia and Olympic, while at the same time they launch bogus investigations against small regional and secondary airports like Charleroi. The foolishness of the Commission”s Charleroi decision is that Ryanair now actually has a lower cost base in Charleroi.”
In a statement Ryanair goes on to give examples of what it calls blatant abuses of the system. Some of this alleged support has already been well documented and highlighted by other carriers, British Airways, both under Rod Eddington and Willie Walsh criticising the situation at Alitalia and Olympic. Some is new.
Ryanair says that German government aid in the development of Munich amounts to a subsidy for Lufthansa and is clearly upset that the discount it receives from Malta for its services into the islands only airport is under scrutiny.
"It appears as always that the Commission applies one rule for the high fare flag carrier airlines and state owned primary airports, but a different one for low cost airlines like Ryanair and the numerous regional and secondary airports that are offering competition and lower fares to the travelling public. The European Commission is more concerned with protecting inefficient flag carrier airlines and hub airports than it is with actually promoting competition and the consumer interest,” said Mr Callaghan.
"Ryanair is left with no alternative but to challenge the Commission”s failure to investigate these unlawful state aid abuses in the European Courts. Ryanair is confident that the European Court will take the Commission to task for their failure to fairly enforce the state aid rules against national Governments who continue to protect their inefficient flag carrier airlines.”