Struggling Air Travel Industry with British Airways and Iberia Can Be Boosted by Europe Says Spain’s Economy Minister

THE struggling air travel industry with companies like British Airways and Iberia can be boosted by Europe, according to Spain’s Economy Minister.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Nadia Calvino has called for a common European Union effort to prop up the struggling airline sector with the aim of maintaining a ‘level playing field.’

She said that one must look past nationalities so that different support packages and multiple levels of funding do not lead to competition problems.

Nevertheless, she reportedly added that the various carriers had flown into the crisis in different states of financial health and might therefore require different levels of aid.

IAG’s two Spanish units, including Iberia, obtained €1bn of state-backed bank loans to help their liquidity situation.

“The European Commission is keeping a very close eye to make sure there is no breach of the competition rules and that we don’t end up with a very unlevel playing field because of the different capacity of government to support the different airlines,” Calvino stated.

“They are all hit in the same manner. We should provide a European response.”

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Alex Trelinski

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