Ryanair Vows To Appeal Against Portuguese Government’s €1.2b Bailout Of TAP

RYANAIR Vows To Appeal Against Portuguese Government’s €1.2b Bailout Of National Airline TAP

Budget airline Ryanair has voiced its displeasure over several European governments bailing out their national airlines during the pandemic, whilst the Irish-owned carrier hasn’t received any help at all.

This comes after the latest funding sees Portugal’s national airline TAP getting €1.2b from their government, calling it “unfair competition”, and claiming Ryanair “has been left out in the cold”, having seen Air France and Lufthansa also being bailed out by their governments.

Talking to Portuguese national daily publication Público, Eddie Wilson, the CEO of Ryanair said, “We and other airlines transform the Algarve – and if we don’t receive a penny from the Portuguese government why should another airline be any different? It’s bizarre, anti-European and anti-competition”.

Mr Wilson continued, “It’s not that Ryanair wants money just because someone else has received it. What we are saying is that if there is a pandemic and the whole sector needs to recover, the emphasis should be on recovery. In the air transportation sector, this recovery will be measured in the number of passengers transported, for example, to Portugal benefiting the economy, helping to create employment, assuring connectivity and supporting tourism”.

The CEO criticised the forecasted €3b that could be spent on TAP, in a country with a population of just 11 million, when “and alternatives exist”, claiming that the airline could never hope to pay back the money, which means that the Portuguese taxpayers would never see a return on their money that was used to fund the bailout.

The Ryanair CEO concluded, “It’s bizarre when you receive State aid just because of what is painted on the outside of the plane”.

Ryanair has recently lost two legal bids against State aid to French and Swedish airlines but says it will be appealing the decisions.

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