FRANKFURT, Germany, May 10 – A European court Wednesday annulled the decision by the European Commission to approve Germany’s multi-billion-euro bailout of airline Lufthansa during the coronavirus pandemic, saying it had made “several errors”.
Lufthansa, one of Europe’s biggest airline groups, received the cash injection in 2020 when the pandemic brought global air travel to a halt.
But it paid the cash back the following year as curbs were eased and travel rebounded, while the German government sold its final stake in the airline last year.
But the EU General Court, ruling on a complaint brought by rival airlines Ryanair and Condor, said the commission “committed several errors”, and annulled its decision to approve six billion euros ($6.6 billion) of bailout funds.
The mistakes included considering Lufthansa could not obtain financing on the markets to cover all its needs and failing to require a mechanism incentivising Lufthansa to buy back Germany’s shareholding as quickly as possible, it said.
Another error was accepting various commitments that did not ensure that effective competition on the market was preserved, it added.
There was no immediate reaction from the European Commission. It can still appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice.
And given the bailout has been paid back, it is not clear if the ruling will have any impact on Lufthansa.
The airline said it would analyse the decision and decide on further action, while noting the “stabilisation measures” were “already fully terminated before today’s court ruling”.
Its shares were up 0.2 percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after the ruling.
Along with other carriers, Lufthansa has rebounded strongly since travel curbs were eased, and in 2022 returned to annual profit after two years of losses.
