THE EUROPEAN Commission has opened an investigation into Ryanair's deal with Bratislava airport in Slovakia over claims it is benefiting from illegal state aid.
The investigation by the commission follows a complaint by one of Ryanair's rivals that it is getting preferential treatment, including cheaper airport charges at Bratislava, than other carriers.
It is the seventh such state aid investigation opened by the commission into Ryanair's agreements with EU airports in the past year.
"There are nine formal investigations currently opened involving airports/airlines. Seven involve [ to some extent or another] Ryanair. None of these cases have been concluded to date," said a spokesman for the commission.
The other investigations involve airports in Germany, Italy, Finland and Denmark. Announcing the launch of the investigation yesterday, the commission said it had ordered Bratislava airport to hand over a copy of the deal it agreed with Ryanair. The airport has not complied with previous requests for access to the agreement.
"Without access to this document, and on the basis of the information provided by the complainant, the commission has doubts about its compatibility with EU rules on state aid . . . The agreement was allegedly concluded in December 2005 for a period until 2016. The reduction could be as high as 31 per cent discount for existing destinations and 48 per cent discount per flight for new scheduled destinations."
Ryanair strongly rejected the EU investigation yesterday branding it "completely baseless".
"The commission's investigation is based on a spurious complaint by 'a competitor', to block competition from Ryanair and Bratislava airport," said Ryanair in a statement.
The announcement of the new investigation by the commission comes on the eve of a crucial European court challenge by Ryanair to a previous commission ruling involving Charleroi airport in Belgium.
In 2004, the EU executive ruled in a landmark decision that some of the subsidies paid to Ryanair by Charleroi airport and the Walloon regional government were illegal state aid that harmed competitors.
Today, Ryanair will challenge that ruling at the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg in a case that could have major implications for the future of air transport from regional airports.
The company is expected to argue that high-cost competitors lodged the complaint because they want to block the growth of these regional airports, although they do not plan to fly to them.
