Ryanair said today it has filed a complaint with the European Commission against the Dutch government, alleging it granted state aid of over €400 million per annum to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and to Air France-KLM.
Ryanair alleges the aid is being granted by the Dutch government in the form of an exemption of transfer passengers from a so-called "ECO-TAX" on air travel.
"While Schiphol is effectively the only Dutch airport handling transfer passengers, Air France-KLM accounts for 95 per cent of the transfer traffic at the airport.
"This tax exemption is almost exclusively benefiting Schiphol and the Air France-KLM monopoly," Jim Callaghan, Ryanair's head of regulatory affairs said in a statement.
Ryanair claims that in September 2007 the Dutch Council of State confirmed it should have been notified to the European Commission as state aid.