Brussels “wrong” by demanding delivery of only 18 ‘slots’ in Lisbon to Ryanair

The ‘low-cost’ airline Ryanair considers that the European Commission “wrong” in demanding the delivery of only 18 TAP ‘slots’ in Lisbon and criticized the postponement of this process to 2022, according to a statement released today.

In the note, the carrier’s CEO (CEO), Michael O’Leary, also says that “there is no economic justification for granting an airline like TAP more than 2.6 billion euros in state aid, protecting it competition” at Lisbon airport.

The European executive approved state aid of 2,550 million euros to TAP and two support, in the context of the pandemic, of 71.4 million euros and 107.1 million euros.

“Commissioner Margrethe Vestager [Executive Vice President of the European Commission with the Ministry of Competition] clearly erred by not requiring TAP to deliver at least 30% of its daily ‘slots’ [slots] in Lisbon, equivalent to 30% reduction in its fleet”, he criticized. For the CEO of Ryanair, “the Commissioner’s decision to postpone this minimum delivery of 5%, equivalent to 18 daily ‘slots’, from summer to winter 2022, further harms competition and consumer choices in Lisbon and will delay airport recovery.”

“We call on Commissioner Margrethe Vestager to stop granting state aid to dead-end domestic airlines, and to start promoting competition and consumer interest by accelerating significant slot divestments as soon as possible, even when the airlines nationals receive billions of euros in wasted state aid,” he stressed.

From Diário Notícias