Michael O’Leary vs. Spain

It doesn’t, but there is a continuing impression that certain sources in Balearic and Spanish circles look down their noses at low-cost. This is a legacy from a time when low-cost meant some other country, not Spain, until the likes of Vueling came along and joined the ranks of air travel barrow boys.

Low-cost public enemy number one was Ryanair, disliked for the fact that it was moving towards being number one in terms of flights (as it has in Palma) and for simply being Ryanair. Michael O’Leary has never exactly traded in bonhomie where Spain’s politicians are concerned. Consequently they have sought ways to bring him to heel. They have now found a way - 108 million euros’ worth of way, 60% of the total value of fines facing five airlines, two of them Spanish. So there’s no charge of discrimination; Vueling, part of a group with a non-Spanish corporate head office, has copped the second largest fine.

O’Leary suggests that this fine threatens the whole low-cost model. Does it? Spain’s Airlines Association reckons the fine is illegal and a nonsense. Rather than a regulator, it is a government (through the consumer affairs ministry) that has issued the fine for hand-luggage charges. It is a “unilateral” action, one with a seemingly political motive - playing to a Spanish public gallery. It must be very doubtful that the fine will stick.