THE EU Commission has closed its formal investigation of Ryanair’s deals with Bratislava airport, one of eight state-aid inquiries into the airline’s contracts with European airports.
After almost two years of inquiries, the commission said yesterday that Ryanair’s agreement with the airport could be justified by a cost-benefit analysis. “The airport operator acted as a market economy investor and therefore no advantage has been granted to Ryanair.”
Investigations are still ongoing into Ryanair’s arrangements with airports in Lubeck, Berlin-Schonfeld, Tampere, Aarhus, Alghero, Po-Bern and Hahn.
A commission spokesman said that it would be wrong to draw any inferences in respect of those inquiries in light of the decision to terminate the Bratislava investigation.
Welcoming the ruling, Ryanair called on the commission to close its remaining investigations, saying this would remove “damaging uncertainty” from the market.
“The decision confirms that public airports are permitted to offer the same deals to airlines as their private counterparts do, with the view to attracting traffic and maximising commercial revenues,” said Juliusz Komorek of Ryanair.
“It further reflects and affirms the commercial realities of the airline and airport markets following the liberalisation in the 1990s.”
In its decision, the commission said it was rational to consider that the deal would make the management of the airport more profitable at the time the agreement was signed.
Although the commission previously ruled that Ryanair received illegal state aid when it opened its first European hub at Charleroi near Brussels, that decision was overturned in 2008 by Europe’s second-highest court.
Last year the commission decided not to appeal that ruling of the European Court of First Instance.
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