EU Says Ryanair Must Repay 9.6 mn euros in Illegal State Aid

The European Commission said on Wednesday that low-fare airline Ryanair must repay about 9.6 million euros in illegal state aid it received for its operations in several French regional airports.

The Commission, the European Union's executive arm, said Ryanair would have to repay 868,000 euros related to rebates and marketing arrangements negotiated at Angouleme airport in central France.

Ryanair had enjoyed "an undue advantage" and should repay the money so as to "remove the distortion of competition," the Commission said in a statement.

Similar findings at Pau Pyrenees airport required a repayment of 2.4 million euros with 6.4 million euros repayable at Nimes airport, both in southern France, it said.

The Commission said it was continuing an investigation into Austria's Klagenfurt airport where airport service and market agreements "appeared to be excessively favourable to Ryanair and therefore could involve incompatible state aid."

Probes into three German regional airports -- Dortmund, Leipzig/Halle and Niederrhein-Weeze, where Ryanair is the largest client -- found no problems with state-aid payments, it added.