Ryanair complains to EU competition authorities over Poland

Ryanair said it had filed a complaint to European competition authorities over a Polish airport company’s alleged refusal to expand Warsaw’s Modlin airport which Ryanair uses as its Polish base. Ryanair is currently a market leader in Poland with around 30% share. Its biggest rivals include Polish state carrier LOT operating from Warsaw’s main Chopin airport. “Ryanair has confirmed that over the next five years it will double the number of passengers on its flights to Warsaw from 3 to 6m annually,” the company said Friday. “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,” Ryanair said. The Polish state-owned airport company PPL has a 30.4% share in Modlin, which is about 40 km from Warsaw. PPL is also the sole owner of the Chopin airport, which is located within the city borders. Plans to expand Modlin -- a small airport which gets very crowded -- have slowed down after the government’s recommendation to build a large new airport in central Poland, about 100 km from Warsaw. Experts have said that opening a new hub airport would likely lead to the closure of several existing airports in central Poland. State carrier LOT has backed the plans for a new airport, which it sees as the pillar of its ambitious international expansion strategy. <br/>