Ryanair files complaint against latest unlawful Alitalia bailout

Ryanair Profile

Ryanair has previously submitted several complaints against Alitalia and other flag carriers, including Olympic, Air France and Lufthansa. According to Ryanair, the ongoing unlawful protection of flag carriers by their member state governments, which amounts to billions of euro, increasingly makes a mockery of the EU Commission’s enforcement of the state aid rules.

Ryanair’s Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Jim Callaghan, said “This is the latest and perhaps most blatant example of the Italian Government doing whatever it takes to protect their failed airline, Alitalia. It is also the second time that they have used the trick of simply shifting debt out of the airline and into a subsidiary in order to keep the airline afloat. In this instance, the Italian government is writing off up to EUR2 billion in Alitalia debts and is guaranteeing the investments by the members of the consortium and underwriting huge concessions to the unions in exchange for their agreement to these ludicrous plans.”

(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 03-Oct-08

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