Ryanair vows to appeal judgement on Finnair, SAS state aid
Ryanair plans to appeal the EU General Court’s rulings on Finnish, Danish and Swedish state aid for airlines Finnair and SAS.
The Finnish government granted a €600m loan guarantee to Finnair which has benefited from more than €1.2 billion in state aid since the start of the pandemic.
The Danish and Swedish governments each granted loan guarantees worth €137m to SAS bringing the total aid received by SAS to over €1.3 billion, Ryanair says.
Ryanair claims they are illegal subsidies as the governments of these countries decided to support only their flag carriers.
Ryanair had referred the European Commission’s approvals to the EU General Court in June last year. It says it will now appeal the ruling to the Court of Justice of the EU.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: "One of the EU’s greatest achievements is the creation of a true single market for air transport. The European Commission’s approvals of the Finnish, Danish and Swedish State aid went against the fundamental principles of EU law."
"We will now ask the EU Court of Justice to overturn these unfair subsidies in the interests of competition and consumers. If Europe is to emerge from this crisis with a functioning single market, airlines must be allowed to compete on a level playing field."
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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