“Following our in-depth investigation, we reached the conclusion that two public loans worth EUR 900 million granted by Italy to Alitalia gave the company an unfair advantage over its competitors, in breach of EU State aid rules,” said EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
“They must now be recovered by Italy from Alitalia to help restore a level playing field in the European aviation industry.”
But the authorities in Brussels simultaneously said new flag airline ITA – set to start flying next month – was not liable to reimburse the money and that 1.35 billion euros being injected into the firm by Rome did not breach state aid rules.
“Italy has demonstrated that there is a clear break between Alitalia and the new airline ITA, and that its investment in ITA is in line with terms that a private investor would have accepted,” Vestager said.
“Once ITA takes off, it is for Italy and ITA’s management to make use of this opportunity once and for all. And we will continue to do our part to ensure fair competition in the European aviation sector.”
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Loss-making Alitalia was placed under state administration in 2017 but Italy has struggled to find an investor to take it over. The situation was only exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that grounded airlines worldwide.
The Italian government gave the company two loans for the amount of EUR 600 million and EUR 300 million in 2017, as Alitalia scrambled for liquidity without access to the debt market.
Earlier this year Italy said it had reached an agreement with the European Union for a bailout that creates a new debt-free company to take over some of Alitalia’s assets – ITA.
The board of directors of ITA last month approved a binding offer for 52 of Alitalia’s aircraft, related airport slots and other assets.
The Italian government has created a 100-million-euro ($117-million) fund to reimburse Alitalia customers.
Italy provided state loans to Alitalia totalling 1.3 billion euros between 2017 and 2019.
In July, it approved another 700 million euros for ITA.
Further sums are expected in 2022 and 2023, bringing the total to 1.35 billion euros.
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So was the money put into Crossair when they used the daughter company of Swiss to relaunch the airline after it failed…20 years ago next month. CH already had signed the transportation bilateral agreement with the EU. Toothless agreements.