Ryanair calls out Air France for unjust state aid

Air France, who fell on hard times not so long ago, received aid from the French State to keep operating under adverse commercial conditions, much to the chagrin of other airlines who saw the move as an unfair advantage to the French airline by waving domestic airport charges throughout the country.

Ryanair was one airline who took the gripe all the way to the European Court, demanding they investigate what they saw as a blatant abuse of EU competition rules, but so far the commission has failed to take up the task.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary vented his frustration by saying, “This is just another example of the Commission’s uneven-handed application of the State aid rules. They apply one rule to flag carriers by ignoring blatant State aid to Air France, Alitalia, Olympic, Lufthansa among others, while at the same time wasting time and money investigating baseless complaints from flag carrier airlines against open market commercial deals at regional and secondary airports.

Recent examples of this include investigations at Tampere airport in Finland and Alghero airport in Sardinia. These complaints were filed by flag carrier airlines operating at expensive hub airports, who would never fly to smaller airports and are only trying to prevent competition and consumer choice.”

www.ryanair.com