The European Commission (EC) has ordered Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) and TUI fly (Germany) (X3, Hannover) to repay millions of euros in illegal state-aid given to them by Klagenfurt airport in Austria.

The bloc regulator said in a ruling issued last week that its investigation found that certain airport services and marketing agreements concluded between the airport operator and each of Ryanair, TUIfly, and Hapag-Lloyd Express (Cologne/Bonn) - which was later merged into TUIfly - gave the latter an undue advantage, which it said, could not be justified under EU state aid rules.

"Moreover, the agreements simply reduce the operating costs of the airlines, without contributing to common transport objectives. These agreements, therefore, distort competition in the Single Market in breach of EU state aid rules," the EC said.

As such, the bloc has demanded Ryanair, TUIfly, and HLX repay the Austrian authorities approximately EUR2 million (USD2.21 million), EUR1.1 million (USD1.23 million) and EUR9.6 million (USD10.1 million) respectively.