According to the European Commission, the Italian government broke EU regulations when it gave Alitalia a government loan of €400 million in 2019. Now, the money must be returned to the budget with interest.

The EU declared in a statement that « Italy must recover the state aid of €400 million plus interest from Alitalia. »

The Italian authorities allegedly did not consider the airline’s capacity to repay the loan with interest when they approved it, instead basing their decision solely on the need to maintain the carrier’s domestic and foreign flight operations. Furthermore, the European Commission believed that the loan Alitalia received could not be viewed as a bailout because comparable assistance had already been given in 2017.

The EC came to the conclusion that Alitalia had an unfair advantage over rivals in the domestic, European, and international air transport marketplaces as a result of this state support.

source: ec.europa.eu