BRUSSELS, July 29 Reuters Ryanair lost its final fight against a state loan made to Austrian Airlines as Europe39;s top court on Monday sided with the EU competition authorities who approved it.

The 150millioneuro 163 million subordinated loan was granted to Lufthansa39;s Austrian unit in 2020 during the COVID19 pandemic.

Europe39;s biggest budget airline has launched more than 20 lawsuits against the European Commission for approving billions of euros in state aid to airlines during the pandemic saying the support gave those carriers an unfair advantage.

A lower tribunal in 2021 upheld the EU competition enforcer39;s 2020 decision, prompting Ryanair to appeal to the Luxembourgbased Court of Justice of the European Union CJEU.

CJEU judges dismissed the appeal.

The Court of Justice confirms the lawfulness of the subordinated loan of 150 million euros granted by Austria to Austrian Airlines in the summer of 2020, judges at the Luxembourgbased Court said.

A member state may, for objective reasons, reserve to a single undertaking aid that is intended to make good the damage caused by an exceptional occurrence, they said.

The ruling is final and cannot be appealed. Ryanair has won its challenges against state aid granted to Lufthansa, Condor, KLM, Air France and TAP but lost its challenges against that for SAS and Finnair.

The case is C59121 P Ryanair and Laudamotion v Commission.

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Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Jason Neely

Source Reuters