(Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Wednesday noted the EU court's rulings on French and Swedish state aid schemes favouring Air France KLM SA and Scandinavian Airlines.
The Irish budget airline highlighted that the French airport tax deferral and the Swedish loan guarantee were introduced at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis with nationality conditions. The French scheme was reserved for French registered airlines and the Swedish scheme to Swedish registered airlines, while excluding all other EU airlines even though they had been similarly damaged by Covid-19.
Ryanair appealed the European Commission's approvals of these schemes to the EU General Court in May 2020. On Wednesday, the EU court rejected Ryanair's state aid lawsuit against Air France and SAS.
Ryanair said it will now refer these matters to the Court of Justice of the EU.
"We hope that the Court of Justice will overturn the European Commission's approvals of the French and Swedish schemes, to give airlines and consumers a glimmer of hope that national politicians obsessed with their flag carriers will be sent back to the drawing board and required to use state aid wisely to assist the recovery of traffic in the post-Covid world instead of bailing out their favoured airline at the expense of fair competition and consumers," said a Ryanair spokesperson.
"One of the EU's greatest achievements is the creation of a true single market for air transport, underpinned by the principle of a common EU airline licence – one for each airline. A nationality condition in a state aid scheme is plainly incompatible with the single market. Ryanair is a truly European airline," the spokesperson added.
Ryanair shares were trading 0.7% lower in London on Wednesday at EUR15.98 each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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