The EU General Court has rejected Ryanair’s bid to secure interim measures in its challenge over Lufthansa’s pandemic-era state aid, leaving the German carrier free of immediate repayment pressure while the wider legal battle continues. The ruling on 3 September dismissed the Irish airline’s attempt to force the European Commission to make Lufthansa repay benefits from its bailout while the aid’s legality is examined again.
The court described the claim as manifestly inadmissible. The dispute sits within a long-running contest over Lufthansa’s roughly €6 billion Covid-era support package, which Ryanair has challenged on competition grounds.
The latest decision does not alter the broader state-aid fight, but it preserves the current position while the underlying case progresses. A separate ruling earlier this year confirmed the annulment of the Commission’s original approval of the rescue package, though that did not automatically trigger immediate recovery of the funds.