The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided to annul the granting of state aid to the airline KLM, which was intended to compensate for damages resulting from the COVID-19 epidemic, while maintaining the subsidies granted to Condor.
Regarding the Air France-KLM group, the CJEU invalidated a decision by the European Commission. This decision had previously been validated by the General Court after an initial appeal filed by the Irish low-cost carrier, Ryanair. The state aid, provided by the Netherlands, totaled 3.4 billion euros and was made available subject to a state guarantee on a bank loan.
The Court's ruling found that the European Commission erred in excluding both Air France and the Air France-KLM holding company from the circle of entities eligible to receive the aid.
Additionally, another judgment delivered on the same day confirmed the decision of the community executive to authorize German state aid to the charter airline 'Condor', amounting to 321 million euros, rejecting the appeal filed by Ryanair.
The COVID-19 pandemic was characterized as a global health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This virus emerged in China at the end of 2019 and spread rapidly worldwide, registering approximately 779 million cases in over 230 territories and more than 7.1 million officially confirmed deaths.
The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency on March 11, 2020, and the pandemic period ended on May 5, 2023.
