ELFAA welcomes European Commission’s decision to launch an in-depth investigation into state aid for

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."