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EC limits aid to start-up airlines
The European Commission has issued guidelines which will limit the level of financial help that regional airports can offer start-up airlines.
It said aid, which is used to persuade airlines to use regional hubs, can be granted over three years and must be limited to 50% of a carrier’s costs in the first year and must not be more than 30% in total.
In poorer areas, aid can be granted over five years and limit it to 40% of start-up costs.
According to The Guardian, the rules arise out of a row with Ryanair over aid it received from Belgian regional airport at Charleroi.
The EC said the deal, which it claimed saw the airport give Ryanair 90% of its costs over 15 years, was illegal and ordered the carrier to repay £2.7 million in a case now being heard before the European court of justice.
But Ryanair attacked the move claiming the restrictions only apply to public airports, giving private airports an unfair advantage.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “It destroy the competitiveness of the many publicly owned regional and secondary airports around Europe that are currently trying to survive and grow their passenger numbers by offering low costs and more efficient services to airlines which are then translated into lower fares.”
He said the guidelines are another example of how the EU is damaging the growth of regional airports and the low cost airlines while protecting the “inefficient high fares of national airlines.”
Report by Steve Jones
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