Ryanair files a complaint to EU competition authorities over Modlin airport

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair filed a complaint to European antitrust authorities over a Polish airport company’s alleged refusal to expand Warsaw’s Modlin airport which Ryanair uses as its Polish base. “Ryanair has confirmed that over the next five years it will double the number of passengers on its flights to Warsaw from 3 to 6 million annually. To service such a level of traffic, the infrastructure of the Warsaw Modlin airport needs to be expanded, which for nearly two years has been unlawfully blocked by the Warsaw Chopin airport,” the company said in a statement on Friday. Modlin airport is owned by the Military Property Agency (34.43 percent stake), state-controlled Państwowe Porty Lotnicze (PPL) (30.99 percent), the Marshall of Mazowieckie voivodship (30.37 percent) and the mayor of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki (4.81 percent). The airport seeks funds for further development and wants to issue PLN 60 million in bonds to get financing, but PPL has blocked all the attempts to do so. PPL is a sole owner of Warsaw Chopin Airport. PPL called the allegations “absurd.” “PPL is looking for a second airport where it could redirect traffic. In our opinion, as far as the facility in Modlin is concerned, no other airline wants to use an airport dominated by a single carrier Ryanair,” PPL said. Last week, state-run airline LOT filed its own complaint to the Polish antitrust watchdog UOKiK, claiming that the deal gives its Irish competition “monopolistic access to airport infrastructure on preferential terms, while the facility is losing money.” Modlin claims that its contract with Ryanair “does not give this carrier any preferential terms in relation to other airport users.”