Ryanair - London to Pau

[Andy]

Announced this morning - may be of interest - not sure of the impact / implications of this so don't shout the messenger!

Aid awarded to low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings PLC by the
Pau-Bearn Chamber of Commerce for its London to Pau, southwest France, route has been judged illegal by the Pau administrative tribunal which has ruled the aid must be cancelled, court sources said.

"The decision which approved financial aid to the benefit of Ryanair without prior notification to the European Commission is illegal and should be cancelled," the tribunal said in its ruling.

Charter airline Air Mediterranee sought a ruling by the tribunal in  September 2003 because it believed the aid amounted to unfair competition against its own route between London and Tarbes-Lourdes.

The tribunal said in its judgement that the Pau Chamber of Commerce gave Ryanair 80,000 eur to open its London Stansted-Pau route in 2003, then 11 eur per Ryanair passenger, up to an annual ceiling of 400,000 eur.

Ryanair also benefited from advantageous landing tariffs, the tribunal said.

The tribunal said the agreement between the Chamber of Commerce and Ryanair must be "cancelled" or "rescinded" within two months of the ruling, or face a fine of 1,000 eur per day.

[Quillan]

I see today that they will be pulling out of Pau and not appealing any further. It is also alleged that a very large back hander was given to Carcassonne to allegedly allow flights in from Ireland (these have now started) a figure of 1.3M€ was seen in a French paper apparently. So this to may be investigated and may end up with the same result but for Carcassonne, allegedly. If I didn't know better I would have guessed that somebody in the French air travel industry does not like Ryanair.

[PaysBasque]

That is absolutely terrible news for Pau! The airport is only about 3yrs old and no longer having Ryanair there will have a huge impact on its business. What I don't understand is why they can't continue to fly there even without the preferential landing fees, backhanders and so on? They don't have to offer flight prices of 99pence each way, do they?

Anyway, I think that the French aviation industry could do with a bit of an overhaul, and like Ryanair or not, they have certainly pushed prices down.

[val douest]

I was sad to read in Quillan's post that Ryanair have decided not to appeal against the Court ruling declaring their Pau contract illegal. I had read that they and the Pau Chamber of Commerce had described the ruling as being only concerned with technicalities and that the contract would be re-negotiated. I'm not doubting the provenance of Quillan's info but would be glad to know the source so I can read it in detail. Maybe if Ryanair pull out then Easyjet or Flybe may step in? Let's hope so as the airport deserves more traffic than just the Air France flights to Paris and Lyon.

Val

[Pushkin]

From Ryanair's latest news page:

News Release

10.05.05 RYANAIR AND CCI PAU BEARN RECONFIRM COMMITMENT TO LOW FARES IN PAU Ryanair and the CCI of Pau Bearn today (10th May 2005) reconfirmed their commitment to developing low fares services at Pau Airport following a decision by the Administrative Tribunal in Pau. The case was brought by Air Méditerranée, a charter airline operating from the neighbouring airport of Tarbes, in order to block competition from Ryanair in Pau. The Tribunal today confirmed that there were some procedural problems with the contract and have given the parties two months to redraft it. The CCI of Pau Bearn has already decided at a meeting of its General Assembly to immediately redraft the contract with Ryanair, reflecting the findings of the Tribunal, and to discuss opportunities for expansion of Ryanair’s low fares services in Pau. Speaking in Pau this afternoon, President of CCI Pau Bearn, Michel Brau, said: “We are pleased to reconfirm our commitment to developing low fares services in Pau Airport and will shortly redraft the contract with Ryanair in order to reflect the findings of the Tribunal. In the meantime, there will be no interruption to Ryanair’s services on the London route and we look forward to welcoming more low fares routes to Pau Airport.”

[Quillan]

It would seem our Independant paper gets it wrong again. I must admit I was more worried about Carcassonne as problems there would upset my business plans quite a bit. It would seem that scare mongering is not just restricted to us Brits.