(Reuters) – Ryanair on Wednesday lost a legal battle against a state loan made to Portuguese airline TAP as the European Union’s General Court sided with the EU competition authorities who approved it.
Portugal granted TAP up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.25 billion)in state aid in June 2020, to help the airline survive the COVID-19 pandemic that crippled air traffic.
The EU’s General Court in 2021 sided with Ryanair in a complaint about the aid, as it said the European Commission had not followed the proper procedure for approving it.
The commission then made a new decision, which was again challenged by Ryanair. But that complaint has now been dismissed.
Europe’s biggest budget airline had launched more than 20 lawsuits against the European Commission for approving billions of euros in state aid to airlines during the pandemic saying the support gave those carriers an unfair advantage.
It won challenges against state aid granted to Lufthansa, Condor, KLM and Air France, but lost its challenges against those for SAS and Finna.
($1 = 0.9612 euros)
(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Bernadette Baum)
