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Old 5th Feb 2012, 16:26
  #78 (permalink)  
stuckgear
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
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main dog,

thank you. FR does exactly what it says on the tin. and no one should expect more or less from them from providing what they do.

O'Leary, love him or hate him, is from an accountancy background (KPMG, IIRCC), so no one should be surprised otherwise if he runs the operation purely on figures and numbers.

As such, he is highly in tune of what subsidies he is able to leverage from the EU to help his bottom line. Can anyone decry O'Leary for that ? No. He is doing what is best for his P&L statements.

Any issues, conflicts, problems etc. with subsidies lies with the EU, the and if the EU wish to subsidise, one airline, not another that is their failing.

The operational environment for carriers in the EU is a farce, and that is the fault of the EU.

As I said before, when we have politicians that stand up for and promote the industry, we will see change, until then nonsense policy and a percentage point here or there of a fringe vote seems to take precedence over the billions that the aviation industry earns in taxes for governments, the billions generated in direct and indirect employment.

Governments and bureaucrats have choked the the golden goose for all it is worth; it's at the point of extinction. When they've regulated and taxed aviation out of the EU, what are they going to do then ?

Of course they wont give a stuff because they'll still have their gold plated, index linked, public sector pensions and hubris to keep them warm at night.

And AN2-Driver pointed out:

Well, Malev was shot down by Brussels because it was subsidized, which they consider illegal. Yet, Malev was important for Hungary as a flag carrier and ensured that Hungary was connected by public transport with most European cities.
So why is it legal then that FR and others are getting paid to fly routes which would otherwise be not economically viable? Just because it is important that these cities are connected to others for the local governments?
under the new hegemonial rule of the Brussels figureheads, there are no countries anymore, just European provinces? And is it a coincidence, that one of those provinces has a non grata prime minister at the very time that it's flag carrier has the rug pulled from below it?
it's equally worth a point a point of consideration that Malev also paid the price for Hungary's position on the EU Veto:

Hungary, alone with UK, said vetoing plan for further EU integration seen as vital to eurozone rescue | Politics.hu

No conspiracy theories, but political reality: perhaps a factor in the consideration of illegal subsidies in the EU, while the EU subsidises elsewhere, which it considers legal, despite having legal cases drawn against them. Maybe Malev were caught in 'perfect storm' of political leverage? who can say? I have no evidence either way. Either way though, as above, the operational environment for carriers in the EU is farce and it needs addressing before the golden goose is dead and buried.
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