EU approves new state aid 24.7 million to Alitalia.

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4 years ago

The European Commission (EC) gave the green light Friday for the Italian government to grant state aid of 24.7 million euros to the airline Alitalia for damages suffered by the coronavirus pandemic between November 1 and December 31, 2020, considering that it is in line with EU competition rules.

This state aid is in addition to another one of 73.02 million euros approved in December, to compensate for the damages it had between June 16 and October 31, 2020, and another one of 199.45 million validated in September, which covers the period between March 1 and June 15, EFE reported.

In a statement, the Commission reported that it considers that the Italian measure “will compensate the damages suffered by Alitalia that are directly related to the coronavirus outbreak”, such as the loss of profitability on certain routes, and saw it as a “proportionate” initiative after Rome presented a route-by-route quantitative analysis that adequately identifies the damage attributable to the pandemic measures.

“On this basis, the Commission concluded that Italy’s additional damage compensation measure is in line with EU state aid rules,” Brussels said.

“The measure approved today allows Italy to provide further compensation for the direct damage suffered by Alitalia between November and December 2020 as a result of these restrictions,” said European Commission Vice President in charge of Competition Margrethe Vestager, who noted that they are also in contact with the Italian government over the investigation into previous support measures for the airline.