Ryanair Sues EC for 5th Time

Ryanair Holdings PLC
30 November 2007


             RYANAIR SUES EUROPEAN COMMISSION (FOR THE FIFTH TIME)

                FOR ITS FAILURE TO INVESTIGATE ILLEGAL STATE AID

                         OF OVER €2 BILLION TO ALITALIA

Ryanair, Europe's favourite low fares airline, today (Friday, 30th November
2007) lodged its fifth case in recent weeks in the European Court of First
Instance against the European Commission's repeated failure to investigate
illegal State aid to national flag carrier airlines. The previous four cases
include:

   •State aid of over €1bn to Air France in the form of reduced domestic
    airport charges;
   •State aid of over €100m to Lufthansa through its use of the loss-making
    Terminal 2 at Munich Airport;
   •State aid of over €500m to the loss making Olympic Airways in Greece;
   •State aid of over €20m to Alitalia's subsidiary, Volare, through a
    write-off in airport debts.

This latest (fifth) case involves the Commission's failure to act on Ryanair's
complaint about continuing illegal State aid to Alitalia. The aid consisted of
several measures, including a split-up of the company's assets and operations
and uneven allocation of the debt, resulting in a €1.7 billion debt write-off
for Alitalia. Ryanair called on the Commission to investigate this blatant abuse
of EU competition rules over 2 years ago, but the Commission has so far failed
to do so.

Announcing the launch of these proceedings Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's CEO, said:

        'The ongoing State aid to Alitalia is a perfect example of the
        Commission's bias towards inefficient national airlines. Alitalia is now
        losing in excess of €400 million per annum and the Italian government
        continues to illegally bail it out. Even dogs in the streets of Brussels
        know that Alitalia is receiving illegal State aid, yet DG TREN continues
        to ignore this blatant State aid, preferring instead to prosecute tiny
        regional airports like Pau in the south of France.

        'Following the Commission's failure to investigate this case, we are
        left with no alternative - yet again - but to challenge this further
        inaction in the European courts. We are calling on the Commission to end
        its discriminatory and biased approach to State aid enforcement, to
        start promoting competition and consumer choice, and to put an end to
        this scandal of unlawful State aid to flag carrier airlines'.

        Ends.                             Friday, 30th November 2007

For reference: 

Peter Sherrard - Ryanair     Pauline McAlester - Murray Consultants

Tel: [phone]          Tel: [phone]



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