THE EUROPEAN COURT of Justice has dismissed a challenge by Ryanair to its ruling last year that Alitalia could sell some of its fleet, in spite of the airline having received unlawful state aid from the Italian Government.

The Luxembourg-based court ruled that though the Italian loan was not legal, the sale of the planes was in line with EU law.

In 2008, a loan of €300 million was given to the state carrier, which was insolvent at the time, and the airline was told it had the option of counting that amount as part its own capital.

The European Commission later cleared the sale of 90 Alitalia planes – half of its fleet – to a group of Italian investors, saying that the new investors weren’t responsible for paying back the loan once the sale was made at market prices.

A 2012 challenge to that decision by Ryanair was rejected last year by the Court, which today issued a ruling dismissing ‘all the arguments’ raised by the Dublin-based carrier against the move.

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