RyanAir loses lawsuit and subsidies

[Lemurian]

On the french news :The Strasburg administration court ,acting on a Britair plaint found that the subsidies granted by the Alsace Chambers of commerce to RyanAir are illegal .the Britair argument was that the sum of 1.4 M euros/year paid by these airport authorities could be regarded as skewing fair competition.It is now known RyanAir contracted 375.000 passengers/year between STR and London.
Of course,RyanAir will appeal...as this court decision could be well be taken as a legal precedent for the numerous suits Britar has filed against RyanAir.
Interesting times.

[Dewdrop]

I wonder how much Britar could get for 375,000 passengers.

[brabazon]

I think 375,000 passengers a year is an over-estimate. For a twice-daily service it's more likely they'd carry 200,000 passengers.

Ryanair's usual stance on these "subsidy" or "marketing support" deals is that they would be open and available to any carrier offering to do the same. So did Brit Air ask for such support or even had it been offered in the past.

Given that Ryanair now have a number of European bases, ie Charleroi, Hahn, Bergamo and Skavsta does anyone know how well they are doing in comparison to their Irish and UK bases - particularly on the routes which don't go to Ireland or the UK?

[RedEye4]

I agree with brabazon . . . Ryanair are doing what every other carrier has the opportunity to do. Fact is, this is just another storm in a tea cup. All will blow over and Ryanair and MO'L (alias Gordon Gekko) will come out the other end smelling of roses. There is no doubt Ryanair are pi****g others off but lets face the facts here, yes they are a low fare budget operator, but the are creating jobs (many fellow Pprune's have secured the RHS with FR), they are creating wealth and are an important player in the development of cross border tourism within EU member states. OK, FR ain't everybodies fav carrier but you gotta hand it to them, they have the other carriers a bit concerned and Joe Public has never witnessed such cheap air travel - long may it last !

[AJ]

I believe FR's lawyers pour over these deals precisely to ensure sure that they ARE available to other carriers, so as to avoid breaking any competition laws.

Besides, if they're going to pester Ryanair, why not all those Japanese and German IT companies in Silicon Glen? We don't think they just moved in without any handouts do we???

I'm not sure this is anything new to aviation, although perhaps the aggressiveness with which Ryanair strikes its deals displeasures some.

[virginblue]

My understanding is that the subsidies did not promote the Alsatian region or Strasbourg airport as a destination, but mereley the Ryanair services through a fund administered by a Manx based marketing agency owned by Ryanair. This seems to be the jumping point in the court case. An additional problem is that the monies paid resulted in an established carrier being driven from the route.

[sky330]

I don't really like RyanAir (I agree it is a personal and irrationnal opinion) so I don't mind them loosing any suit but what I find strange is, why everyone is flaming Ryanair and not the locals managers given them the money.

You are a private airline company manager, and you succeed in someone else paying your costs!
Why won't you do it??
The question is why locals airports managers and 'Chambre de Commerce' pay public money to support one private local carrier?

Response to that question would put things more to the point, IMHO .

[lightbluetouchpaper]

why everyone is flaming Ryanair and not the locals managers given them the money.
Although flaming Ryanair is a popular sport here on pprune, under EU competition law it is the recipient of illegal state aid that has to pay it back.
Besides, if they're going to pester Ryanair, why not all those Japanese and German IT companies in Silicon Glen? We don't think they just moved in without any handouts do we???
If memory serves me right, some of the aid granted to Honda to set up in the NE by the UK Govt was found to be in breach of state aid rules – so had to be given back.

[donder10]

Part of the problem is the aversion to switching airports(especially regional ones)into private hands.