European justice announced, Wednesday, December 20, that it had annulled the decisions approving France’s massive aid to Air France and Air France-KLM during the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, considering that the European Commission had committed a “error” in giving them permission.
Seized by the airlines Ryanair and Air Malta, which considered the aid measures “contrary to Union law”, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) “upheld these appeals”, a- she announced in a press release.
The concrete consequences of these judgments are uncertain. State aid, billions of euros which enabled Air France-KLM and its companies to overcome the health crisis which brought global air transport to a halt in 2020, has since been repaid, with interest.
“Air France-KLM and Air France take note of the two judgments,” declared the airline group in a reaction sent to Agence France-Presse, specifying that the two companies “will examine them carefully (…) to assess the implications” .
“Air France-KLM and Air France will study the advisability of filing an appeal for annulment before the Court of Justice of the European Union. At the same time, Air France-KLM and Air France will contribute to any exchange between the French State and the European Commission with a view to the adoption of possible new approval decisions,” according to the same source.
In addition, the group “recalls that Air France-KLM and Air France respected and applied on April 19, 2023 all the conditions for exiting state aid granted under the European Union’s temporary framework relating to Covid-19 “.
Wednesday’s decision echoes that of May 10, 2023, when the same court, again seized in particular by Ryanair, canceled two vast airline recapitalization plans, that of Lufthansa by Germany and SAS by Denmark and Sweden.