Photo: Shutterstock Head-to-head battle between two of Europe's largest airlines. Low-cost giant Ryanair issued a statement today (April 24, 26) welcoming the final ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled that the €6 billion aid package granted to Lufthansa by the German government during the coronavirus pandemic was illegal.
According to the company, Lufthansa has not yet returned approximately €200 million of the benefits it received as part of the aid, including interest for the period in which it benefited from the support.
It was also claimed that the European Commission was supposed to oblige Germany to repay the amount as early as 2023, after the General Court's ruling that the aid was illegal, but this has not been done so far.
Ryanair adds that the German aviation market is still struggling to return to pre-Corona activity levels, due in part to high access costs, government taxation, and the lack of a level playing field between subsidized airlines and those that do not benefit from support.
Ryanair said: "Today’s CJEU judgment again confirms what was obvious from the start: Germany’s €6 billion Covid bailout of Lufthansa was illegal State Aid that distorted competition. While efficient airlines (like Ryanair and others) were forced to survive through Covid on their own resources, Lufthansa was handed a €6 billion benefit by the German Govt which once again rewarded German inefficiency, damaged competition and hurt consumers."
The airline added that the "German air transport market continues to fail to recover its pre-Covid traffic due to a combination of high access costs, penal Govt taxes and an uneven playing field in which non-subsidised airlines are asked to compete with the heavily state subsidised Lufthansa.
It is time for the European Commission and Germany stop stonewalling and start complying with their EU law obligations and recover the €200m benefits of this illegal State Aid directly from Lufthansa without further delay.”