CEO: Enough room for Ryanair and Croatia Airlines in Zagreb
Ryanair will be operating 25 routes out of the Croatian capital by the end of the year, just six months in from commencing operations to the city. Its CEO, Eddie Wilson, has said there is enough room for the budget carrier and the national airline to coexist in Zagreb. “Historically, if I look at Ireland and what happened when we started out, a low fares airline against Aer Lingus, everyone said the whole world was going to fall in and that Ryanair was going to take over everything. We didn’t. We just made Aer Lingus more competitive. They are a stronger airline because of us”, Mr Wilson said. He added, “Ireland is now one of the most connected places in terms of air travel. We have over 200 destinations out of Dublin Airport. We have transatlantic services other large cities could only dream about and we have probably the most connected city in Europe. That’s because we have two private companies that can compete and be more efficient and I have no doubt that it will happen here too. What I do know is that if you come back here [Zagreb] in five years’ time, passenger numbers will have grown at this airport significantly. It will just mean that everyone will become more efficient, and everyone will be paying less. There is room for everyone”.
Despite the friendly tone, Ryanair has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission’s decision to approve state aid for Croatia Airlines in 2020. “We have lawsuits across Europe. Why would taxpayers pay over thirty billion euros in state aid to make airlines smaller? No one worries who owns the roads, railways or hotels or shops, but governments seem to be obsessed about airlines and maybe it’s because they have their flag on them. Perhaps they could paint their flag on the back of our aircraft. That would save everyone a lot of money. State aid is not going to work. Look at what happened with Alitalia”, the CEO noted.
Mr Wilson said his airline is launching flights to Zagreb because it sees opportunities but also because of the airport’s incentive policy. “We don’t get any subsidies. What you have here is that an airport needs passengers and they put an incentive in. That’s a published scheme, it’s not a secret deal and any airline can access it, Croatia Airlines included. We are all for transparency because the airport here has invested in fantastic facilities. The only way they are going to get a return on that is not by putting up prices but by generating more passengers to spread it across their fixed costs. So, the more passengers they get, the more efficient they get and the more revenue streams they get. It’s the way everything works. Constraining that is the wrong way to do it”, Mr Wilson concluded.
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