Irish airline Ryanair, like other airlines, is struggling because of the consequences of the corona crisis. Everywhere in the world, aviation is turned upside down by the measures taken as a result of the corona crisis. Several airlines are assisted by the government with state aid, this amounts to hefty amounts, tens of billions of euros. This state aid is urgently needed to keep the airlines afloat. 

Ryanair has not received state aid to date, as they have no real home base. Special state aid is according to the ONGOING only for an airline that is considered a national carrier by a country. Often these are former state-owned companies that were privatized years ago. 

Ryanair went to the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg last Friday to ask for European approval for Swedish state aid to airlines to be withdrawn. Ryanair believes that state aid violates EU rules. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary labels the aid as doping to keep "bloated and inefficient" competitors in the air.

"Competition is unfair because of previously unseen amounts of state aid to 'national' airlines," said Ryanair. "With this support, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Alitalia can offer tickets below cost for years, while a well-run company like Ryanair does not receive state aid."

Ryanair suffered a loss of Euro 100 million in the first quarter of this year, during this period they had less than 1 percent of the normal amount of passengers. They expect the recovery to take a long time, they think it will only normalize again around the summer of 2022. There are likely to be many jobs at risk, thinking that about 3000 jobs will be at risk due to the corona crisis.

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