19
June 2013, Brussels –
The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA)
welcomes
today’s announcements by the European Commission and the
EFTA
Surveillance Authority that they are launching formal, in-depth
investigations
into the latest tranche of support by the Governments of
Sweden
Denmark and Norway for the ailing flag carrier SAS.
The
latest state measure favour SAS took the form of a Revolving Credit
Facility
(RCF) in 2012 in the amount of SEK 3.5 billion, supported 50% by the
three
states.
This
follows other measures by the states in support of SAS, as recently
as 2009
and
2010. The need for the 2012 state-supported RCF is evidence of the
failure
of the earlier interventions by the states in support of SAS, all of
which
were
the subject of complaints to the Commission by ELFAA.
Bolstered
by such successive propping up, involving states’ use of public
funds,
SAS has embarked on a programme of fleet renewal, route expansion
and
price-cutting, to the detriment of competitor airlines.
John
Hanlon, Secretary General of ELFAA said: “ELFAA airlines which
compete
with
SAS have no recourse to such benevolent support by states, nor do
they
seek
it. What they do demand, however, is a level playing field, on which
they
can
compete on equal terms.”
