The Ryanair low-cost airline could fail to qualify for the maximum discount on airport taxes at the Lviv airport for being the first airline to launch flights on the Lviv-Budapest route because the Hungarian-based Wizz Air airline announced its own flights on this route and began selling tickets for them before Ryanair.
This was reported by the CFTS portal, which cited the Avianews publication.
An analysis of Clause 2.3.1 of the provision on granting discounts at the Lviv airport shows that an 80% discount on airport taxes is reserved for the first airline to announce flights and begin selling tickets. In this case, the actual date commencement of flights does not matter.
Since Wizz Air announced its Budapest-Lviv flights and began selling tickets on September 10, it will qualify for the maximum discount despite the fact that the Hungarian airline’s flights will begin on June 3, 2020, while Ryanair’s flights will begin on April 1, 2020.
In addition, the Hungarian airline could qualify for a discount of up to 90% on ground handling services for the new flights. In the case of Ryanair, it cannot qualify for this discount for the same reason it cannot qualify for the discount on airport charges.
However, the Irish low-cost airline could qualify for the discounts on ground handling services that are granted to airlines operating more than 30 flights per month (30-70%) or transporting more than 5,000 passengers (20-50%).
As the CFTS portal reported, the Hungarian-based Wizz Air airline, which is a competitor of the Irish-based Ryanair low-cost airline, announced on September 10 that it would launch flights from Budapest to Lviv and Kharkiv in June 2020. Ryanair also announced on September 11 that it would launch of flights on the Lviv-Budapest route in April 2020.
