Euro-rules rebound on the passengers
In the not too distant past, France and the United Kingdom operated a cartel on flights, refusing to allow other carriers to compete with the state-subsidized national airlines, and banning charter flights altogether. The result was high prices, a shortage of seats at high season, and very few flights to all but a handful of major airports. For villa renters, air travel was usually expensive and inconvenient.
Once the European Commission began to flex its muscles, all that changed dramatically. A whole host of lean and meaner airlines have set up multiple new routes to unfashionable airports all over France. They have made it possible to fly-drive to villas that could only have been reached sensibly by road or motorail a few years ago.
However the problem with rules and regulations, even those designed to allow smaller carriers to operate on level terms with the larger operators, is that they have to be enforced even when the public interest in doing so is doubtful, to say the least. The most recent example of that could result in a service between Stansted and Pau, highly popular with villa owners and holidaymakers, coming to an end after only its third season.
Ryanair, who run this schedule, have recently lost a local court action to determine when the airline’s contract with the Pau Chamber of Commerce was a breach of competition rules.
Ryanair did not receive any direct subsidy from the chamber of commerce, but it was alleged by competitors that they enjoyed a number of cross-subsidies, including favourable landing rates and a high profile achieved by advertising in the press and on local radio at the chamber of commerce’s expense.
Ryanair did not admit to any breach of the rules and intends to appeal. If, however, it loses in a higher court – and informed legal opinion is that the odds are against them overturning the original verdict – then Ryanair can be expected to pull out. When a similar ruling was made in Strasbourg, Ryanair appealed against it. And, when it lost the appeal, abandoned its service, so convenient for Euro MPs, in favour of flights to Baden Baden, around 40km away.
Its nearest existing alternative service to Pau is to Biarritz, a journey of 100 kilometres, about one hour on the motorway. Not by any means a disaster, but Pau has benefited hugely from the direct link with the UK, not just in terms of tourism but in a general stimulus to the economy. A case, perhaps, where over-regulation is not achieving the effect the rule-drafters intended.
