AGENCIASMadrid Updated: Save Send news by mail electrónicoTu name *

Your email *

email *

The Dutch Government has announced this Friday that the airline KLM, the Air France-KLM group, will receive an aid package for the value of 3,400 million euros to alleviate the impact of the crisis of the coronavirus.

After weeks of discussion on how much aid it needed for the carrier to overcome the crisis, KLM will finally receive 2,400 million euros in bank loans with guarantees and 1,000 million euros in direct loans from the Government, as announced by the minister of Finance, Wopke Hoekstra.

however, the support of Dutch sets out terms and conditions under which KLM will suspend the payment of dividends, to reduce their expenses by 15%, lowering the wages of the most senior levels of the company or to commit to an active contribution to sustainability.

This help from the Dutch Government is in addition to the already announced by the Executive to the French another airline group, Air France, will receive 7,000 million euros in loans and guarantees, which highlights the dependence of the largest european companies of the state aid to overcome the crisis in the sector.

in Addition, this same Thursday, the airline German Lufthansa won the approval of the shareholders for a ransom of 9,000 million euros from the German Government. Both France and the Netherlands are shareholders of Air France-KLM, the second group of airlines largest in Europe after Lufthansa.

Criticism of Ryanair

After hearing the news, Ryanair has called on the European Commission’s blocking of this “illegal state aid”. The ceo of Ryanair, Michael O’leary, has pointed out that the state aid from the Dutch Government “is bad news for competition and consumers ‘interests”, as that will delay even more the necessary reforms for Air France-KLM “.

therefore, has indicated that it will ask the European Commission to block these subsidies to KLM. Last Thursday, Ryanair announced it would take legal action against the decision of the European Commission to give ‘green light’ to the rescue of the German company Lufthansa for 9,000 million.

Comments