According to the competition watchdog of the EU Commission, the Italian airline Alitalia has received illegal state aid amounting to 900 million euros.
Italy must therefore reclaim the money plus interest from Alitalia, the Brussels authority announced on Friday.
This could help restore fair competition in the European aviation industry, said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
Italy has repeatedly supported the airline, which has been dependent on state aid for years, with financial injections. According to the EU Commission, it has been making losses since 2008. The disputed aid is about payments with which Alitalia has been able to maintain its operations. The company was granted a loan of EUR 600 million in May 2017 and a further loan of EUR 300 million a few months later.
In mid-July it became known that after months of struggle, the start of the successor airline to the ailing Alitalia was getting closer. The discussion with the EU Commission about the establishment of the Italia Trasporto Aereo (Ita) had ended positively, according to the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance. The first flights from Ita are scheduled to start on October 15th. The European Commission stated that Ita is not the economic successor to Alitalia and therefore does not have to repay the 900 million euros.