Ryanair wins court challenge against EU approval of €3.4bn in state aid for Air France-KLM
Budget carrier hits out at the European Commission’s ‘spineless approach’ to state aid since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis
Ryanair won a European Union court challenge against the EU’s approval of €3.4 billion in state aid for rival Air France-KLM, in the latest round of the Irish carrier’s campaign against allegedly unfair subsidies doled out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The EU’s General Court in Luxembourg on Wednesday annulled the European Commission’s decision, saying regulators “erred in defining the beneficiaries of the state aid granted.”
Ryanair — Europe’s biggest discount airline — has filed more than two dozen challenges to the vast amounts of state aid given by governments to local carriers, arguing the measures shouldn’t have been waved through by the EU’s executive because they distorted competition in the industry.
