MOL too aggresive, huh? Well, he indeed might be, nevertheless he is perfectly right in many issues no matter how he expresses his anger in public. Look at small and ugly Tampere low-cost terminal. Welcome to Finland... not the best way to enter though. Its refurbishment from an old cargo building costed between 100.000-200.000 euros and was not made for any public money, yet the EU Commission still investigates it as an alleged State aid involving Ryanair. On the other side, Alitalia's very existance has been chronically dependent on State aid for years and AZ has just been given a next loan, the sum over a thousand times higher than the money involved in Tampere. Three hundred
millions of euros which is perfectly ILLEGAL, will never be payed back, but it's DOOMED TO BE TOLERATED by EU (again and again). So, what's the proportion, where is the justice here?
Concerning these planes to be grounded. Are you out of ideas, Mr. O'Leary? Do you really think "no deal - no flights"? Having just an average agreement with Tampere and some spare aircrafts, is it impossible to use them? The profit can be achieved not only due to the "marketing support". Out-of-season flights e.g. ALC-TMP-ALC might well be worth trying. People normally pay 350-400 euros for return flights even amidst the winter. Sell your tickets for a half of the sum, it will be profitable for you even without anybody's help.
Btw. I do not concieve the routes from/to Finland as a solution to FR problems, not at all (too small population here). I just give the examples from the country I know, many more such opportunities exist in other countries as well, obviously.
