Brussels, 05/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The General Court has partially annulled the Commission decision ordering Ireland to recover the sum of €8 per passenger from airlines that benefited from state aid. The amount calculated is incorrect.
On Thursday 5 February, the General Court (T-473/12 and T-500/12) annulled part of the Commission decision of July 2012, with which the Commission considered that the Irish tax rates on airlines illegally put national flights at an advantage in comparison with cross-border flights. When the air travel tax “ATT”) was introduced, it was levied on the basis of the distance between the airport of departure and the airport of arrival, at the rate of €2 in the case of a flight from an airport to a destination no more than 300 km from Dublin airport (Ireland) and €10 in all other cases. The former therefore benefited from a reduced tax. The Commission therefore ordered Ireland to recover this aid from the beneficiary airlines and calculated that the amount of aid corresponded to the difference between the lower rate of the ATT (€2) and the standard rate of €10 - that is to say, €8 - levied on each passenger. AER Lingus and Ryanair, the beneficiary airlines decided to appeal to the General Court of the European Union.
In its ruling, the General Court annuls part of the decision involving the recovery of aid from the airlines for the amount of €8 per passenger and considers that the calculation of the amount of aid was subject to error. The Court bases its decision on the fact that the Commission had been unable to prove that the economic advantage benefiting the airlines was automatically €8 per passenger. The General Court adds that the Commission has not established how, in those circumstances, the airlines whose flights were subject to the ATT at the reduced rate enjoyed an advantage corresponding to the difference between the two rates of ATT. The General Court notes, moreover, that the Commission could not presume that the economic advantage resulting from the application of the reduced rate of ATT had not been passed on to the passengers at all. Finally, the General Court emphasises that it is impossible for the airlines to retroactively recover the €8 and that this recovery would be liable to create additional distortions of competition. (MD)