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"Certain airport services and marketing agreements concluded
between the airport operator and airlines Ryanair, HLX and
TUIfly gave the latter an undue advantage, which cannot be
justified under EU state aid rules," the European Commission
said on Friday.
HLX merged with Hapagfly in 2007 into the new brand TUIfly.
"The amounts of incompatible state aid are estimated at around 2
million euros for Ryanair, 1.1 million euros for TUIfly and 9.6
million euros for HLX," the EU competition enforcer said. The
companies will have to repay the money to Austria.
Ryanair said it would fight the EU ruling. TUIfly had no
immediate comment.
The case concerns Klagenfurt airport in the south of Austria.
"We note the Klagenfurt decision, where we stopped flying in
2013. We disagree with the findings and have instructed our
lawyers to appeal," a Ryanair spokesman said.
The Commission also found that aid granted to the airport by its
public owners between 2000 and 2011 was in line with EU state
aid rules.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Additional reporting by Victoria
Bryan and Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt, and Kirsti Knolle in
Vienna; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Mark Potter)
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