Günther Ofner, CEO of Flughafen Wien AG, is pissed off at the EU Commission. The manager strongly criticizes the fact that the fixed cost subsidy II was capped by the competition watchdog in Brussels to a maximum of 800.000 euros per company. At the same time, Ofner criticizes the fact that after more than half a year there is still no progress in the development of Europe-wide uniform travel regulations. Not only airlines and airports suffer from this, but the entire tourism and travel industry. The EU has “failed dramatically so far”.

Günther Ofner is actually considered to be an extremely cautious and medially calm member of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG, but the latest developments now seem to have upset him too. Anger and disappointment run deep in the entire industry and now Ofner rushes forward and takes the floor. The manager says a lot openly that other industry representatives also say behind closed doors, but have still held back. Incidentally, in all of Europe and not just in Austria.

“The recent increase in the number of infections is massively slowing down the number of passengers, which has recently fallen again very sharply, which is also exacerbated by the jumble of completely different regulations and travel restrictions depending on the EU country. Although the pandemic has already lasted six months, EU-wide coordination and standardization is unfortunately not even rudimentary and a total failure of those involved has been identified, ”said Flughafen Wien board member Günther Ofner, explaining the acute problem situation. “The loss-making maintenance of the undisturbed operation of our critical infrastructure despite insufficient utilization, as is necessary at the airport not least for reasons of security of supply and maintenance of connectivity, costs monthly fixed costs of up to € 20 million in our case alone. An important help here would be the extended fixed cost grant kindly proposed by the government. It is completely incomprehensible that this is now limited by the EU Commission to a maximum of T € 800 per company despite the drama of the development. This means that those companies that mobilize all their forces in the service of the general public in order to maintain operations and secure jobs are cut off from the necessary help. This wrong decision by a bureaucracy in Brussels that is detached from any reality must urgently be corrected. In this context, it must be seen as particularly grotesque that the country in which most of the EU institutions are located, namely Belgium, has changed its entry requirements in such a way that only PCR tests carried out in Belgium are recognized, but not those from other countries However, it is not yet known to EU countries that the EU Commission would have intervened against it ”.