EU court annuls approval of French pandemic aid to Air France and Air France-KLM

abcnews.go.com:

Low-cost airlines Ryanair and Malta Air have won a court case against the European Union’s decision to approve billions of euros in state aid by the French government to holding company Air France-KLM during the COVID-19 pandemic

BRUSSELS — Low-cost airlines Ryanair and Malta Air won a court case Wednesday against the European Union's decision to approve billions of euros in state aid by the French government to Air France and holding company Air France-KLM during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ryanair has filed several court challenges against measures introduced by EU countries to help some airlines weather the fallout of coronavirus restrictions.

The Irish airline welcomed the decision and urged the European Commission “to order France to immediately recover this multi-billion euro illegal state aid package."

The bloc's 27 members must seek approval from the commission — which is the EU's executive branch — when granting financial support to companies. Many countries across Europe did so to help keep their airlines afloat during the pandemic.

Back in 2020, French authorities notified the European Commission of an aid measure of 7 billion euros ($7.67 billion), which was supposed to solely benefit Air France, to the exclusion of all the other companies in the Air France-KLM group. A year later, France told the commission about plans for 4-billion-euro ($4.38 billion) recapitalization of Air France and the holding company.

In both cases, the European Commission didn't raise objections.

But the European General Court ruled that the Air France-KLM holding and KLM “were capable of benefiting, at least indirectly, from the advantage granted by the state aid at issue" and annulled the European Commission’s decisions.

“Where there