The Court of Justice of the European Union has dismissed Ryanair’s challenge to the European Commission’s approval of €321 million in German restructuring aid for Condor, overturning a 2024 General Court ruling that had annulled the decision. In a separate judgment on 5 November, the court also set aside the annulment of €3.4 billion in Dutch aid for KLM, but returned unresolved claims to the General Court for further review.
The Condor case concerned aid approved in July 2021 to support the airline’s restructuring after financial difficulties linked to the insolvency of former parent Thomas Cook and the COVID-19 pandemic. The CJEU found that the Commission had implicitly determined that the specific burden-sharing assessment challenged by Ryanair was not required. It therefore dismissed Ryanair’s action in full.
The judgment covers that 2021 approval, not a separate €321.2 million aid decision approved by the Commission in April 2025, which Ryanair is challenging in a pending case. The measure in the 2021 proceedings included the partial write-off of €90 million in loan debt and €20.2 million in interest debt. Condor told dpa that the aid at issue had been repaid.
For KLM, the CJEU found that the General Court had substituted its own assessment for the Commission’s without establishing that the Commission’s conclusion was implausible. The remaining claims will return to the lower court, so the legality of the KLM approval has not been finally determined.