Ryanair to appeal EU state-aid ruling

The owners of European budget airline Ryanair (FR/RYR), Ryanair Holdings PLC, has said it plans to appeal the EU Commission’s ruling on state-aid to Air France and SAS.

The case centres around state-aid given to Air France by the French Government and SAS by the Swedish Government in the form of tax deferral & loan guarantee schemes designed to help the airlines get through the global pandemic.

Ryanair says that this state-aid violates EU law as it effectively shuts out non-state airlines and discriminates against Ryanair and other airlines based outside of Sweden and France.

The EU Commission decided not to uphold Ryanair’s request to overturn the approval of these schemes which the group now intends to refer to the EU Court of Justice.

A spokesperson for Ryanair said “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.  We have no rich and powerful ‘home country’ to subsidise us in times of trouble.  Nor do we want discriminatory aid.  Our instinct in a crisis is to seek efficiencies and cost savings, to offer more routes at lower fares – while remaining Europe’s greenest airline. 

“During the Covid-19 pandemic over €30bn in discriminatory State subsidies has been gifted to EU flag carriers and, if allowed to stand, this will distort the level playing field in EU aviation for decades to come, giving chronically inefficient national airlines a leg up on their efficient low-fare competitors. 

“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.  Now is the time for the European Commission to stop caving in to national governments’ inefficient bail-out policies and start protecting the single market, Europe’s greatest asset for future economic recovery.“

How much state-aid have EU airlines had?