€250 mln in subsidies paid to 15 airlines in 5 years

Almost half of all Spanish airline subsides paid over the last 5 years have been made to Ryanair, who recieved just over €100 million of the €250 million total paid out.

A recent report from the National Competition Commission examined subsidies paid by 23 Spanish airports to 15 different airlines between 2007 and 2011.

Catalonia alone have paid out €40 million to Ryanair in subsidies since 2002, and have recently made a further deal with the airline to guarantee a further €40 million over the next 5 years, if certain conditions can be met.

The main beneficaries of the 15 airlines were Ryanair and Air Nostrum, as the subsidies paid to the remaining airlines did not surpass €5 million - and in some cases €1 million. These included Lagunair; Vueling; Air Berlin; Air Europa; Spanair; Wizz Air; Plaza; Iberia; EasyJet; Transavia; Islas Airways; Jet2 and Andalus.

The report also noted how the 15 airlines who subsidies were paid out to carried more than 60% of all the passengers arriving in Spain over that period.

Ryanair received an average of 60 cents per person for their 34.7 million passengers carried in 2011, whilst Air Nostrum received and average of €3 per person for the 8 million passengers they carried in the same period.

Different sources report that the airline has begun charging the regional governments a fixed fee of around €12 per person, or €500'000 to €700'000 per route.