Brussels South Charleroi Airport

Brussels Airlines to benefit from changed EU law that levels playing field for airlines

Brussels Airlines will benefit from ongoing European Union legal changes that it argues will level the playing field for nationally based legacy carriers compared to European-wide low-cost carriers which establish outside their home bases. Under previous legislation, airline employees were subject to taxes and social security rules of their company’s home, and not their operating base. That meant, for example, that Ryanair staff in Belgium paid lower taxes and had a competitive advantage against Brussels Airlines staff even though living in the same country.

This disadvantage was pushed into the limelight recently by what Brussels Airlines deems was misinterpretation by the foreign press that the airline would move headquarters to a more favourable labour location like Luxembourg. The airline affirms it has no intention to move its staff or headquarters. Brussels Airlines will continue to call its namesake city home.

Italy's S.A.V.E. airport operator invests and prospers

While most of the attention that is directed towards airport operators in Italy is focused on Rome and Milan, the two biggest cities, the Venice-based S.A.V.E., which operates both the Marco Polo and Treviso airports in addition to others in Italy and beyond, quietly gets on with the job of turning its small- to medium-sized airports into success stories.

Ryanair in the dock

Ryanair may have to repay millions of euros as Germany’s highest court ruled fees it has received to operate from airports may amount to subsidies in breach of EU competition rules. Lufthansa and airberlin have been awarded the right to pursue legal action accordingly. Together with the other difficulties the Irish airline faces in Germany could this be the beginning of the end for its operations there? Or might there be even more significant outcomes?

Ryanair goes medium haul. Is a Middle East hub the goal as it pushes the limits?

The announcement last week from Ryanair that it intends to include Larnaca, Cyprus in its list of destinations raises some interesting questions. Not least amongst them is, just how far can LCCs travel using the business model that is in place now? So far Ryanair has shied away from long haul (transatlantic) operations, which its management knows would require a significant adjustment to the short/mid haul model, though it still insists it will do it one day. It seems Ryanair (or Michael O’Leary) has spoken to airport management in the U.S., for example Niagara Falls airport, about hosting the first route. Now it appears though that Ryanair may be looking at tapping into the Middle East market, by using Larnaca as a base.