THE EU HAS referred France to the bloc’s top court for failing to recover nearly €10 million in illegal state aid received by low-cost airlines Ryanair and Transavia.
Ryanair and Dutch carrier Transavia received the money from the French government in return for basing operations at several French regional airports.
The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, ordered Paris in July 2014 to get the money back, saying it had given the companies an unfair advantage over competitors.
“The European Commission has referred France to the European Court of Justice for failing to recover incompatible aid received by Ryanair and its subsidiary Airport Marketing Services (AMS) for using Pau, Nimes and Angouleme airports, as well as Transavia for using Pau airport,” it said in a statement.
Brussels has demanded €6.3 million from Ryanair over the use of Nimes airport in southern France, €2.4 million from Ryanair and €420,000 from Transavia in relation to Pau Pyrenees airport, and €870,000 for Angouleme in central France.
It said rebates and marketing arrangements meant the airlines paid less than they should have for using the airports.
Ryanair had appealed against the recovery orders made by the French government, effectively blocking the EU action in French national courts, the Commission said.
In order to ensure its state aid decisions are fully implemented the Commission has therefore decided to refer France to the European Court of Justice.
Last year Ryanair, which pioneered low-cost, no-frills air travel in Europe, said it had ceased operations at Pau Pyrenees in 2011 and at Angouleme in 2009.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say