EU orders Cyprus Airways to return incompatible aid

The European Commission, the exclusive body of the European Union(EU), ordered on Friday that Cyprus Airways to return a aid package of over 100 million euros due to enjoying unfair advantage.

The Commission concluded that the repeated public support measures have already procured a considerable economic advantage to Cyprus Airways that its competitors, who had to operate without such public money.

"In order to remedy this distortion of competition, Cyprus Airways now needs to return the aid received to Cypriot taxpayers," said the Commission.

Apart from informing the company to pay back all incompatible aid received, the Commission found that Cyprus Airways had no realistic perspective of becoming viable without continued state subsidies.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, noted that Cyprus Airways has received large quantities of public money since 2007 but was unable to restructure and become viable without continued state support.

"Therefore, injecting additional public money would only have prolonged the struggle without achieving a turn-around," she said. Endit