1st Oct 2014 12:27
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC Wednesday welcomed the EU Commission's confirmation that its airport agreements at Brussels Charleroi, Frankfurt Hahn, Alghero and Stockholm Vasteras do not infringe the EU state aid rules.
The EU Wednesday ordered Germany and Belgium to recoup illegal state aid granted to two airfields. This involved the Charleroi airport near the Belgian capital Brussels and the now-insolvent Zweibruecken airport in Germany, located about 200 kilometres from Frankfurt.
Charleroi is used mainly by Ryanair, while Zweibruecken caters to Germanwings, TUIFly and Ryanair. Insolvency proceedings for the German airport were opened on Wednesday.
Ryanair will, however, appeal the decision concerning Zweibrücken, where it ceased operations in 2009, saying its airport arrangements complied with the state aid rules. It has instructed its lawyers to appeal this ruling to the extent that it alleges the arrangements did not.
"Ryanair has to date carried over 136 million passengers at the 10 airports where our commercial arrangements have been confirmed by the EU Commission and the EU Court to comply with EU law, compared to just 50,000 passengers at Zweibrücken airport where the Commission today suggested that the airport agreement did not comply with State aid rules," said Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs Juliusz Komorek in a statement.
In the case of Charleroi, the airport should pay back EUR6 million, the commission said, saying that competition was significantly distorted by aid granted since 2002, which helped the airfield to "develop considerably."
The commission has also launched an investigation into Charleroi's main competitor, the Zaventem airport in Brussels. At issue is a EUR19 million yearly state support scheme granted to the airfield for 2014-16. Most of the funds are reportedly going to the national carrier Brussels Airlines.
"We remain committed to growing traffic from the current 87 million passengers a year to over 150 million passengers a year by 2024, in partnership with both private and public airports across Europe where all of our arrangements are arms-length commercial deals consistent with the EU Market Economy Investor Principle," Komorek added.
Shares in Ryanair were trading down 1.3% at EUR7.45 Wednesday.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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