The owners of “Carcassonne en Pays Cathare”Airport , the Carcassonne Chamber of Commerce, announced that they are working with Ryanair to increase the number of destinations by at least two new routes and the passenger level to a staggering 600,000 by 2007. “Carcassonne en Pays Cathare”Airport ,formally known as Carcassonne Salvazza Airport, already has a daily flight to Charleroi, Belgium, and one to London Stanstead, two a day in Summer, and in April opened a Dublin route to the delight of the many Irish second homers in the Aude. The possible new routes announced at the Annual General meeting of the Carcassonne Chamber of Commerce and Industry, CCI, were Frankfurt Hann, Eindhoven which would greatly assist the Dutch, a significant minority in the Aude both in terms of second homers and permanent residents, and Liverpool.
In 2004 the number of passengers rose year on year by 8% to 275,000.
With more candor than Ryanair may have liked, Rene Escourrou, President of the Carcassonne Chamber of Commerce, revealed the marketing assistance the CCI have agreed with Ryanair. 1.75 euro per passenger for the first 110,000 passengers, 2.25 euro per passenger between 110,000 and 250,000 passengers, and a huge 5 euro for every passenger over 250,000. The majority of this assistance comes from the CCI, with contributions from the Carcassonne mayor and the Department of the Aude. So far the marketing assistance has reached 450,000 euro, if Ryanair reach the 600,000 target then Midi-life calculate that the annual contribution for marketing will reach, 2,240,000 euro in 2007.
Does Ryanair really spend all its marketing assistance on promoting the Carcassonne routes? When the European Commission were challenged by that symbol of free market independence Air France over similar marketing assistance by Charleroi and Strasbourg they found that the marketing assistance actually represented an illegal subsidy and ordered changes, Midi-life finds it difficult to believe that 5 euros a passenger is a legitimate marketing cost and the last thing we want is Ryanair to withdraw from Carcassonne airport, whatever name it has in 2007- so let’s not be too greedy Ryaniar.
Carcassonne and Ryanair aim for 2007 passengers in 2007 -Peter Shield, 28th June 2005
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