Ryanair today (26 June) called on the EU Commission to block the latest illegal State Aid of €3.4 billion to Dutch flag carrier KLM, which equates to a subsidy of €200 on behalf of every man, woman and child of Holland. The Dutch Government are great at preaching fiscal conservatism to other EU countries but when it comes to bailing out flag carrier airlines they write subsidy checks even faster than Mrs Merkel (Ryanair yesterday opposed the €6 billion state aid package to Lufthansa approved by the EU).
Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said:
“16 years after Air France’s takeover of KLM, every Dutch citizen now has to pay €200 each to prop-up Air France-KLM, while each French citizen will only pay a subsidy €100. This is a poor deal for the “trading nation”, which likes to lecture other EU countries about fiscal rules but has no problem breaking these rules when it comes to subsidising KLM. This Dutch government subsidy is also bad news for competition and consumer interests as it will further delay the necessary reforms at the bloated Air France-KLM. For this €200 KLM subsidy, every Dutch man, woman and child could buy 5 flights with Ryanair, instead of paying for the failure and inefficiency at Air France-KLM.
We call on the European Commission to block this subsidy doping to KLM, which will further reduce competition and consumer choice in the Dutch and French markets”.
26 June 2020