In a judgment delivered on Wednesday 29 March (case T-142/21) (see EUROPE 12544/3), the General Court of the European Union dismissed, in its entirety, Wizz Air Hungary’s action for annulment of the European Commission’s decision approving, in August 2020, public aid of €62.1 million (€28.3 million for damage related to travel restrictions and €33.8 million to cover urgent liquidity needs) granted by Romania to the airline Blue Air Aviation in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In particular, the General Court rejects the applicant’s argument that the Commission overestimated the damage suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic by not excluding Blue Air’s losses resulting from pre-existing difficulties. The Commission has in fact compared the actual financial situation of Blue Air with a counterfactual scenario that would have occurred in the absence of the travel restrictions, based on the revenues and costs foreseen in the 2020 budget for the period from mid-March to the end of June 2020.
Secondly, the General Court rejects the plea for annulment alleging misapplication of Article 107(3c) TFEU, read in the light of the Commission’s guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty other than financial institutions.
For the General Court, the Commission was right to find that the aid granted had an objective of common interest. An exit from the Blue Air market could have led to serious social hardship and market failure as it would have been difficult to replace the air transport services that were interrupted in the particular circumstances of the pandemic.
See the General Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/63w (Original version in French Mathieu Bion)