Spain’s Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday 11 May that her country wanted a common European response to the economic crisis currently being experienced by airlines, which have been hard hit by containment measures.
Believing that all major carriers “are not of one nationality or another” but European, the Minister called for a “level playing field”.
Mrs Calviño, fearing that airlines established in countries with less financial resources would be disadvantaged vis-à-vis those receiving more State Aid, said that competition should not be distorted.
The International Consolidated Airlines group, on which the Spanish companies Iberia and Vueling depend, has obtained a loan guarantee of one billion euros from Spain.
An amount well below the 9 billion euros currently under discussion for the German company Lufthansa or the 7 billion euros granted to the French subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group, with a possible additional 2 to 4 billion euros for the Dutch subsidiary (see EUROPE 12479/5).
According to the recent updates by the three NGOs listing financial aid to airlines in the EU (see EUROPE 12472/23), the total amount of such aid as of 8 May was 30 billion euros.
To view their updated tracking document: https://bit.ly/3fBxnFv (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)