Ryanair has joined with Strasbourg Airport and the Strasbourg Chamber of Commerce to request a stay on a court decision that would terminate the airline's agreement with the airport next month.
Lodging the request yesterday, the three parties told the court that Ryanair would end its daily service between Strasbourg and London's Stansted Airport on September 24th, the date the agreement is scheduled to end.
No date has been set for a hearing.
"Clearly all three partners must respect the decisions of the Strasbourg Court. However, since Ryanair's low-fare services on the Strasbourg to London route carry almost 20,000 passengers a month, or 200,000 a year, it is important that we try everything in our power to try to preserve the route," Ryanair's head of communications, Mr Paul Fitzsimmons, said yesterday.
The airline warned that, if a stay was not granted, it would be left with no alternative but to close the route and stop taking further bookings.
"Ryanair and our two partners remain committed to the London to Strasbourg route. We will take every step to pursue our appeal with the utmost urgency and we are confident that, if and when we win the appeal, Ryanair will restore its twice-daily services on the route," he said.
The French court ruled that financial aid granted by Strasbourg Chamber of Commerce to Ryanair to help it set up this route was illegal. It had promised to pay the airline €1.4 million when it started the service in October 2002 after Ryanair promised to carry 375,000 passengers a year after five years flying that route.
Reacting to the ruling, Ryanair chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary had said that it could not renegotiate the agreement.
"To do that would be an admittance that there was something in the original agreement that constituted state aid," he said.
The court challenge was brought by Brit Air, a subsidiary of French national carrier Air France, which cancelled its London-Strasbourg link after Ryanair began flying from the city. It insisted state aid distorted competition.
