Aid: EU Court approves Corona aid for Condor

The European Union court declared part of the hundreds of millions of Corona aid to the Condor airline. The court dismissed a corresponding lawsuit by the competitor Ryanair as unfounded, as said in Luxembourg.

Among other things, Ryanair had argued that the compensated costs not only had to do with pandemic, but also with other difficulties of the group. Appeals are still possible against the judgment.

In 2021, the EU Commission approved three packages with German Corona aid of over 525 million euros. One of them – with loans in the amount of 144 million euros – fokes Ryanair before the EU court. Condor should compensate for damage caused by travel restrictions that were valid between mid -March and the end of December 2020.

Ryanair considers aid to be discriminatory

The Irish Airline Ryanair had brought several indications with which it wanted to prove an insufficient examination by the EU Commission. Ryanair argued that damage was also caused by Condor because of the restructuring of the group. In addition, the aid for competitors such as Ryanair are discriminatory and disproportionate. None of the arguments made penetrated with the judges.

The Commission had originally approved an even larger aid package, but Ryanair successfully complained to the EU court. Now the new decision of the Commission was on trial, against which Ryanair was going again – this time without success.

Ryanair refers to similar cases

Ryanair reacted to the judgment with reference to other, similar cases in which the EU court had decided in favor of Ryanair. The European Commission has not yet asked the Member States concerned to reclaim the illegal aids and also impose no measures to remedy the damage caused by competition, according to the Irish airline.