Carpatair comments on forged Wizz Air's figures and defenses on state aid at Timisoara

Following Wizz Air’s declarations, please see below Carpatair position in this issue:

Carpatair declares perplexity on the disrespect to an irrevocable decision of courts in a Community member state, which is nothing else but impermissible affront to the authorities of that state, in our case Romania.

Secondly, in its statements Wizz Air conveys cooked-up information on Timisoara Airport traffic until and after its arrival at the airport. According to Eurostat database, the traffic of Timisoara Airport was over 900’000 passengers in 2008 and not 300’000, as Wizz Air claims. The peak of the traffic in 2011 was slightly over 1’200’000 passengers. That means that the total traffic increase at the airport during 2009-2011 was of only 324’000 passengers and not of 750’000 to 800’000 passengers, as Wizz Air falsely suggests. Thus, the extent of misrepresentation is between a four times increase claimed by Wizz Air and the actual increase of only 30 percent, which is not completely attributable to Wizz Air.

Thirdly, an important part of Wizz Air’s traffic at Timisoara Airport is a result of a simple transfer of the existing traffic from Carpatair and other carriers through subsidies and abuse of dominant position by Timisoara Airport. The anticompetitive behavior of the airport, which, in fact, entered the competition on the side of a chosen market player, is forbidden by the Community and Romanian law.
Carpatair will refrain from answering the appreciations of what is better for Timisoara Airport and the region. The market rules and the rule of law shall prevail and decide on the benefits provided by each enterprise. In the meantime, Carpatair informs that its court action against Timisoara Airport for damages has been already filed based on the irrevocable decision of Appeal Court of Pitesti. The other action for the recovery of the state aid from Wizz Air is under preparations as well. Carpatair wants to reiterate that the total amount of the aid received by Wizz Air from Timisoara Airport since 2008 exceeds 10.0 million Euros.