The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation on Tuesday 29 October to determine whether the Spanish region of Valencia’s plan to grant €9 million in public aid to the regional airline Air Nostrum for the renewal of its fleet complies with EU state aid rules.
Air Nostrum is a regional airline based in Valencia. The aid (€9 million in total) is intended for the purchase of additional, more environmentally friendly aircraft.
Spain claims that this measure falls under the environmental protection rules set out in the 2014 General Block Exemption Regulation (‘GBER’).
However, the Commission has doubts that the planned aid falls within the scope of the GBER and that it complies with the Guidelines on State Aid for environmental protection.
In particular: - the Commission doubts that the aid will have an ‘incentive effect’ (the Commission will examine whether the decision taken by Air Nostrum in 2017 to acquire 10 Bombardier CRJ-1000 aircraft, which are more fuel-efficient, is a direct result of the public aid or if the investment in a more environmentally friendly solution would have been made anyway, even in the absence of public aid); - the GBER only applies to measures supporting investments made by the beneficiary airline (the lease agreement must provide for an “obligation” to purchase the aircraft).
The opening of an in-depth investigation does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)