The EU court has declared the state corona aid for the airlines SAS and Finnair to be legal. The action brought by competitor Ryanair was thus unsuccessful. But the low-cost airline wants to appeal.
The low-cost airline Ryanair failed again with several lawsuits against state aid for competing airlines in connection with the Corona crisis. The court of the European Union ruled in the first instance that the aid granted to Finnair and the Swedish-Danish airline SAS in 2020 was compatible with EU law and therefore permissible. The EU court confirmed the legality of individual state aid in the corona pandemic for the first time. These are possible to compensate for economic damage caused by extraordinary events.
EU judges: State aid proportionate
With regard to SAS, the EU judges emphasized, among other things, that the measures were proportionate. According to the court, the fact that the governments supported SAS and other airlines did not can be justified by the fact that SAS had a much larger market share in its home markets than its competitors. At Finnair, they found in particular that a possible default would have had a significant impact on the Finnish economy. In both cases, the state aid is suitable to achieve the aim pursued.
Ryanair announces appointment
Ryanair does not want to accept the decisions of the EU court and immediately announced that it would appeal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The unfair subsidies should be prohibited in the interests of competition and consumers in Europe, according to the company. It is not the first lawsuit that the low-cost airline is bringing against its competitors: In the past few months, Ryanair had already sued the EU court in 16 cases against state aid. Most recently, the company failed in February with the crackdown on aid from France and Sweden. Because of the almost complete collapse of business in the Corona crisis, many airlines in Europe could only be saved from bankruptcy with state financial aid. Ref .: T-378/20, T-379/20 and T-388/20
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