RYANAIR STATEMENT ON STATE AID RULINGS

RNS Number : 1173N

Ryanair Holdings PLC

23 July 2014

 



RYANAIR WELCOMES EU CONFIRMATION THAT AIRPORT DEALS COMPLY WITH STATE AID RULES

Ryanair, Europe's favourite low fares airline, today (23 July) welcomed the EU Commission's confirmation that Ryanair's airport agreements at Niederrhein Airport comply with the State aid rules (Market Economy Investor Principle). This finding is consistent with the EU Commission's and EU Court's previous rulings that Ryanair's airport agreements with Aarhus, Bratislava, Charleroi, Marseille, Berlin Schönefeld and Tampere airports also comply with EU State aid rules.  

Ryanair also noted the EU Commission's decisions concerning Pau (ceased operations in March 2011) and Angouleme (ceased operations in October 2009) airports, and Nimes airport where Ryanair currently operates 4 routes.  All of Ryanair's airport arrangements comply with the EU State aid rules and Ryanair has therefore instructed its lawyers to appeal these rulings to the extent they erroneously allege otherwise.

Ryanair's Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Juliusz Komorek said:

"Today's decisions confirm that Ryanair's airport agreements at Niederrhein Airport comply with the EU State aid rules (Market Economy Investor Principle).  Following the closure of this case and the earlier six positive decisions at Aarhus, Bratislava, Charleroi, Marseille, Berlin Schönefeld and Tampere airports, we will immediately appeal the decisions in Pau, Angouleme and Nimes cases where the EU Commission mistakenly suggested that the airports' agreements with Ryanair did not fully comply with the EU State aid rules.

Ryanair has to date carried 86.5m passengers at the 7 airports where our commercial arrangements have been confirmed by the EU Commission and the EU Court to comply with EU law, compared to just 3.4m passengers at the airports where the Commission today suggested that the airport agreements did not comply with State aid rules. 

We remain committed to growing traffic from the current 85mppa to over 110mppa by FY2019, 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."

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For further information

please contact:           Robin Kiely                            Joe Carmody 

                                    Ryanair Ltd                            Edelman Ireland

                                    Tel: [phone]              Tel: [phone]

                                    [e-mail]                   [e-mail]

Follow us on Twitter: @Ryanair            

 

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