Italy’s Air Dolomiti, Blue Panorama, Neos appeal for aid

EU court annuls Italian state aid approval

Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) has welcomed a ruling at the General Court, Europe’s second-highest court, on state aid favouring Italian airlines during the Covid-19 pandemic. The court backed the low-cost carrier’s challenge and annulled the European Commission-approved aid.

In October 2020, the EU competition authority allowed Italy to give EUR130 million euros (USD140 million) in subsidies to airlines holding an Italian operating licence. As ch-aviation reported at the time, while the country’s then-flag carrier Alitalia had received EUR199.45 million (USD213.6 million) in Brussels-backed state support in September 2020, three other local carriers, Air Dolomiti, Blue Panorama Airlines, and Neos Air, appealed to the Italian government “to act as quickly as possible” to release the newly-approved EUR130 million.

However, in its May 24 ruling the Luxembourg-based court said that the authority had “failed to provide a statement of reasons for its finding that the measure at issue was not contrary to EU law provisions other than those governing state aid.”

The court explained that “according to settled case-law, a decision not...

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