By Foo Yun Chee and Sudip Kar-Gupta
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Ryanair on Thursday lost its appeal against Danish and Swedish state aid to pandemic-hit SAS airline, which was approved by EU competition authorities, in one of a spate of challenges by the low-cost carrier against such subsidies.
The European Commission had in 2020 cleared two separate aid measures granted by Denmark and Sweden to SAS, involving a guarantee on a revolving credit facility of up to 1.5 billion Swedish kronor.
The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) endorsed the EU competition watchdog, concurring with a judgement by a lower tribunal in 2021 which upheld the EU decision.
"State aid to SAS during the COVID-19 pandemic: the Court of Justice definitively dismisses Ryanair (LON:0RYA)'s actions concerning the loan guarantees put in place by Sweden and Denmark in April 2020," CJEU judges said.
Europe's biggest budget airline has launched more than a score of lawsuits against the European Commission for nodding through billions of euros in state aid to its rivals affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting travel restrictions.
It has a mixed record so far, winning some of its challenges and losing others.
The case is C-320/21 P Ryanair v Commission and C-321/21 P Ryanair v Commission.