December 20, 2023 – Ryanair Holdings PLC (Dublin: RYA) today welcomed the EU General Court’s rulings that €7 billion Covid-19 State aid granted to Air France-KLM in 2020 and €4 billion in 2021 was illegal. Ryanair now calls on the European Commission to order France to immediately recover this multi-billion euro illegal State aid package from Air France-KLM and impose adequate remedies to repair at least some of the damage to competition done by this massive State bailout.
Ryanair stated:
The European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition has still not acted to force recovery of the unlawful aid, nor has it imposed any measures to remedy the damage to competition caused by the Swedish, Danish, German, and Italian governments favouring their local airlines over other EU airlines, in breach of EU law. Today’s judgments underline the need for the European Commission to immediately act to recover these illegal State aid packages and order remedies to restore at least some of the damage done to competition.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including expected delivery dates. Such statements are based on current expectations and projections about our future results, prospects and opportunities and are not guarantees of future performance. Such statements will not be updated unless required by law. Actual results and performance may differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.