The European Commission has ordered Ryanair to repay almost euro10 million in funds the airline received from three airports in France following a series of rulings on state aid and the public financing of airports and airlines.
The Commission ruled that Ryanair and its subsidiaries received “an undue economic advantage over competitors” as a result of airport service agreements and marketing arrangements the carrier concluded with Angouleme, Pau Pyrenees and Nimes airports.
The agreements were in place at differing times between 2000 and 2012.
The EC said that in each case Ryanair had “paid less than the additional costs linked to its presence in the airport”.
It found the agreements with each of the regional airports “could not have been reasonably expected to improve the financial situation of the airport . . . [and] no private operator would have accepted to grant similar conditions. Therefore they involved state aid.”
The EC ordered Ryanair to re-pay euro6.4 million it had received in the case of Nimes Airport, euro2.4 million in the case of Pau Pyrenees and euro868,000 in the case of Angouleme.
Dutch carrier Transavia, part of the Air France-KLM group, was also ordered to repay euro400,000 in the case of Pau Pyrenees.
Commission vice-president Joaquin Almunia said: “Taxpayers’ money should not be used to grant an undue advantage to certain airlines.”
Ryanair said it had instructed its lawyers to appeal.
The carrier’s director of legal and regulatory affairs, Juliusz Komorek, said: “We will immediately appeal the decisions where the EU Commission mistakenly suggested the airports’ agreements with Ryanair did not fully comply with EU state aid rules.”
The EC also announced the extension of its ongoing investigation into financial arrangements involving Ryanair at Klagenfurt Airport in Germany.
This followed the Commission’s discovery of “two additional marketing agreements” between the airport operator and Ryanair on top of two agreements already under investigation.
The EC said the agreements “appeared to be excessively favourable to Ryanair”. The Commission has a further 10 investigations involving airlines and airports under way.