CALLS ON GERMANY TO RECOVER €200M COVID BAILOUT BENEFITS FROM LUFTHANSA

Ryanair today (Thurs, 23 Apr) welcomed the final CJEU ruling which again confirms that the €6 billion State Aid bailout received by Lufthansa during the Covid-19 pandemic from the German state was illegal.

Lufthansa has so far avoided repaying the approx. €200m benefits it received from its latest German Govt bailout, including interest for the years when this illegal support was in place. The European Commission should have forced Germany to recover these €200m benefits in 2023 when the General Court first ruled this Lufthansa aid was illegal but as usual the Commission and the German Govt has failed to do so despite Ryanair’s repeated requests.  

Ryanair’s spokesperson said:

“Today’s CJEU judgment again confirms what was obvious from the start: Germany’s €6 billion Covid bailout of Lufthansa was illegal State Aid that distorted competition. While efficient airlines (like Ryanair and others) were forced to survive through Covid on their own resources, Lufthansa was handed a €6 billion benefit by the German Govt which once again rewarded German inefficiency, damaged competition and hurt consumers. 

The German air transport market continues to fail to recover its pre-Covid traffic due to a combination of high access costs, penal Govt taxes and an uneven playing field in which non-subsidised airlines are asked to compete with the heavily state subsidised Lufthansa. 

It is time for the European Commission and Germany stop stonewalling and start complying with their EU law obligations and recover the €200m benefits of this illegal State Aid directly from Lufthansa without further delay.”