Has the low-cost bubble burst?
|
|
|
The Guardian 7 February, 2004
What is the European Commission's problem with Ryanair?
The commission has ruled that Ryanair benefited from illegal state subsidies in accepting incentives worth £11m to land at Charleroi airport, in a down-at-heel former mining area of Belgium. The money came from the Walloon regional government, which owns the airport.
Why is everybody so worried about it?
Because it has cast doubt on budget airlines' habit of striking cut-price deals with airports, which is viewed as crucial to keeping fares low.
Does it mean higher fares?
Not immediately. Ryanair is appealing to the European Court of Justice, and has pledged that it will not raise fares as a result of the ruling for at least a year.
If it loses the appeal, the European transport commissioner Loyola de Palacio reckons the average Ryanair fare will rise by around £6. But Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, says it could be at least twice that.
Will it force Ryanair to axe many of its routes?
O'Leary claims it will. About a fifth of Ryanair's destinations are to state-owned airports, which could be hit by the ruling. This includes all its routes to France and most services to Spain and Italy. O'Leary maintains that they are all at risk.
The airline has already pulled out of one French airport, Strasbourg, because of a similar court defeat, and relocated to privately run Baden-Baden across the German border.
So should I sell my second home in the Dordogne?
No. Most experts believe O'Leary is playing a game of brinkmanship. He is unlikely to put profits at risk by axing dozens of routes and waving goodbye to British consumers.
Instead, he can urge airports to privatise themselves, so that landing incentives do not constitute state aid. Or he can simply renegotiate deals, axing some of the more controversial benefits but still maintaining a healthy profit margin.
Could other low-cost airlines be hit?
Ryanair says they will. All the other airlines say they won't. Carriers such as easyJet and FlyBE say they do not strike nearly as hard a bargain as Ryanair with their airports. But a deal agreed by easyJet at Berlin's SchÙÂnefeld airport is already under scrutiny.
Is it the end of the line for low-cost flights?
Definitely not. Budget airlines have created a permanent change in air fares across Europe, forcing steep drops in the prices charged by traditional carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France. There is no question of going back to the bad old days.
So will everything continue just as before?
Not quite. Ryanair is Europe's biggest budget airline, and irrespective of the Charleroi ruling it is exhibiting growth pains. The airline is struggling to fill its aircraft, has been forced to slash its prices and is heading for its first quarterly loss for a decade. There are too many budget aircraft plying Europe's skies for too little money. Something has got to give.
Iraq
Not for sale: seminar warns against trafficking in Iraqi artefacts Date: 12/2/04
The London Correspondents Unit 6 February, 2004 A two-day international meeting in Geneva
on 5 and 6 February was hosted by the British Embassy, the British Council Switzerland and the Art-Law Centre in Geneva to raise the contentious issue of trafficking in ancient artefacts.
One of the starkest images of the days after the fall of Saddam Hussein's
regime was the looted halls of Baghdad Museum. In July 2003, its director
Dr Nawalaal Mutawalli expressed his fears that as many as 1 in 10 Iraqi
treasures were stolen from the museum. Although an impressive number of
items (1500 according to the museum's director of research) have since been
returned, many of the objects are still missing. Some will resurface on the
international markets for ancient artefacts.
Until recently, legislation in Britain and Switzerland has made the trade in
ancient artefacts comparatively unproblematic for buyers and sellers, and as
a result, London and Geneva are both considered world centres for trade in
cultural artefacts. So, some of the pieces from Baghdad, Afghanistan and
elsewhere may come up for sale in London and Geneva. Both the UK and
Switzerland are in the process of introducing new laws to combat the illegal
trade.
It is for this reason that the British Embassy, the British Council in
Switzerland and the Art-Law Centre in Geneva hosted a two-day meeting
on the trafficking of ancient artefacts at Uni-Mail in Geneva. The meeting
focused particularly on the attempts to combat illegal trafficking in these artefacts in Switzerland and the United Kingdom and on efforts to protect artefacts in countries like Iraq.
It was a high-profile public seminar on the changing national and
international legal frameworks for the trade in cultural artefacts, with
particular reference to objects looted from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The British Embassy, the British Council in Switzerland and the Art Law
Centre in Geneva were joined by a number of partners in holding this
conference: the Swiss Federal Office for Culture, the Coalition Provisional
Authority in Baghdad, the British Museum, the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, the British Department of Culture Media and Sport, the police
authorities in Switzerland and the UK concerned with artefact trafficking as
well as Interpol.
A host of highly respected speakers and authorities on the topic were brought to Geneva, among them Ambassador Mario Osio, the senior
adviser on culture for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and his
predecessor, Ambassador Pietro Cordone along with a number of Iraqi
participants. On the political and administrative level was Estelle
Morris MP, the UK Minister for the Arts, Francesca Gemnetti, the President
of the Swiss UNESCO Commission and Dr David Streiff, the director of the
Federal Office of Culture. The scientific and research community was
represented by Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Professor of Archaeology at
Cambridge University, Zainab Bahrani from Columbia University, USA and Jens
Braavig from the University of Oslo.
|
| Back to main page
|
Showing 1 news articles
Back
To Top
|
|
