Ryanair loses legal battle against Condor bailout funding
Ryanair has lost its legal battle to have bailout funding provided by the EU to German charter airline Condor ruled unlawful.
The EU’s General Court said today the aid package was legitimate and that Ryanair failed to demonstrate the European Commission had mishandled funds when bailing the charter airline out.
“The applicant did not succeed in rebutting the Commission’s findings that Condor’s difficulties were the result mainly of the Thomas Cook group being placed into liquidation and not of an arbitrary allocation of costs within the group,” the ruling read.
“The General Court dismisses the action in its entirety.”
Condor received in 2020 a €550m bailout package after it filed for insolvency following the collapse of parent company Thomas Cook in late 2019. The package was questioned by Ryanair filed a lawsuit and was granted an initial win in June 2021.
Over the last few years, the low-cost carrier has filed several lawsuits against the EU state aid as part of Michael O’Leary’s crusade against unfair competition.
According to Ryanair’s chief executive, the EU state aid could damage competition in the European aviation market, putting his airline at a disadvantage.
Several airlines – Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and SAS – were dragged into the eye of it.
After an initial streak of victories, Ryanair lost its legal challenge against SAS and Finnair as well as against KLM and TAP.