Ryanair complain to EU about ‘illegal’ Alitalia state aid
04.10.08
Ryanair has submitted a formal complaint to the European Commission regarding what it describes as ‘the latest unlawful bailout’ of the Italian carrier Alitalia.
Under the plan to rescue Alitalia from bankruptcy, a new streamlined airline was set to take off on November 1 with the support of a foreign carrier. 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.'
'It is 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. The Italian government is writing off up to €2 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.'
'Despite the blatant nature of the Italian government's breaches of the EU state aid rules, we have no doubt that the EU Commission will again rubber stamp this unlawful bailout.’
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