Ryanair To Appeal EU State Aid Ruling

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

27 May 2004

Budget airline, Ryanair announced on Tuesday that it has lodged an appeal with the Court of First Instance (CFI) over the European Commission's decision to declare concessions and subsidies offered to the airline by the Charleroi regional airport as illegal state aid.

Employing colourful language to describe the Commission's decision, and the attitude of Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary argued that the EC was "factually wrong" to suggest that a privately run airport would not have offered the same level of subsidies as Belgium's Charleroi.

"The core of the appeal, and the core flaw of the commission's original decision, was that the commission blatantly disregarded the private market investor principle," O'Leary announced, adding that:

"We believe that on those grounds alone, the appeal will succeed."

The Ryanair boss went on to condemn the EC's attempts "to fettter the ability of publicly owned airports, particularly in France and Spain, to enter into low-cost arrangements with low-cost airlines," and concluded that:

"The commission's decision is bad for competition, it's bad for choice and it's bad for consumers."

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