EU Commission approves state aid for Air Austral

The EU Commission has given the go-ahead for state aid to the French airline Air Austral. This amounts to 136,8 million euros and consists of 119,3 million euros for the restructuring of the carrier and 17,5 million euros as compensation for the corona pandemic.

In its statement of January 5, 2023, the European Commission announced that it had also approved the restructuring plan for January 2022 to March 2025. Air Austral had repeatedly received state-guaranteed loans in advance. The measures to limit distortions of competition will remain in force during the above restructuring period. These include limitations on the number of seats and routes operated by Air Austral and a ban on acquiring equity interests in other companies and banning commercial arrangements with other airlines.