The €150m ($163m) subordinated loan was granted to Lufthansa’s Austrian unit in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.
Ryanair 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.
A lower tribunal in 2021 upheld the EU competition enforcer’s decision on Austrian Airlines, prompting Ryanair to appeal to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Their judges have now dismissed the appeal.
“The Court of Justice confirms the lawfulness of the subordinated loan of €150m granted by Austria to Austrian Airlines in the summer of 2020,” judges at the Luxembourg-based Court said.
“A member state may, for objective reasons, reserve to a single undertaking aid that is intended to make good the damage caused by an exceptional occurrence,” they said.
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – July 29th
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed. Ryanair has won its challenges against state aid granted to Lufthansa, Condor, KLM, Air France and TAP but lost its challenges against aid given to SAS and Finnair.
Meanwhile a German court has ruled in favour of Ryanair in its ongoing court actions against online travel agency (OTA) eDreams.
The Berlin regional court found that the €3.88 service fee charged by eDreams was unlawful. It also ruled that the eDreams ‘flexfare’ was misleading for passengers as it stated that customers could change the time and date of flights for free.
However, while eDreams waived its own change fees for those who opted for this option, passengers still had to pay airline change fees.
The Berlin Regional Court has also granted Ryanair an injunction against the terms and conditions of the OTA’s prime membership offering.
It currently offers discounts up to the value of the annual membership. However, eDreams had previously stated in advertising that members could receive discounts on 100pc of their flight bookings.
Earlier this month, a jury in Wilmington, Delaware, also found that internet travel giant Booking.com had caused economic harm to Ryanair and induced content platform Etraveli to access Ryanair’s website without authorisation.
All the counterclaims by Booking.com against Ryanair – which included allegations of unfair competition and defamation – failed.
