Airport, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Transport

"De Facto" has found out that now the case could be forwarded to Irish courts.

LGS said that it would appeal the Riga Regional Court's decision, but if the case has to be reviewed by a foreign court, the company might withdraw the claim because of the high court costs, writes LETA.

As reported, LGS turned to the Administrative Regional Court with an LVL 262,917 claim against Ryanair over the airline's debts for LGS services.

Ryanair, on the other hand, insists that it does not owe LGS anything. The airline believes that all payments it must pay in Riga are included in the Riga Airport tax, which the airline pays for every passenger.

The airport's CEO Arnis Luhse admits that the Irish airline believes that it does not have to pay anything besides the airport tax. However, the airport will not pay the bills for the airline either, he said.

"De facto" notes that if the case makes it to courts, the secret agreement that Ryanair signed with then Transport Minister Ainars Slesers (Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way) could be made public, revealing that the airline was given great advantages so it would start to fly to Riga. Experts point out that even if the airport had to cover any costs of Ryanair operations in Riga, the numbers of passengers that the airline brought to Riga would have fully compensated for this.