EU tells France to recover E8.5m illegal aid from Ryanair

EU competition regulators on Friday ordered France to recover E8.5m in illegal aid granted to Ryanair at Montpellier airport because it gave the Irish low-cost carrier an unfair advantage. Ryanair served the airport in the south of France until April 2019. The EC started an investigation following a complaint from a Ryanair rival. The EU antitrust enforcer said the case centred on about E8.5m paid to the airline and its subsidiary AMS by the Association for the Promotion of Touristic and Economic Flows (APFTE) between 2010 and 2017 for promoting Montpellier and the surrounding area on Ryanair's website. APFTE is funded almost entirely by regional and local public entities which control the use of its budget.<br/>