February 8 (SeeNews) - The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said on Wednesday that it cancelled the European Commission’s (EC) decision to validate the aid granted to Romania’s Timisoara International Airport, which has facilitated the operations of Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air.
The General Court of the CJEU ruled that the Commission committed several errors of law when examining whether the measures in question were selective and conferred an advantage, the CJEU said in a press release.
In 2008, as part of a strategy designed to attract low-cost airlines and to increase the overall profitability of the airport, the AITTV company that operates the airport, signed agreements with Wizz Air that determined the principles of their cooperation and the terms and conditions for the use of airport infrastructure and services by Wizz Air. Two of these agreements were amended in 2010, by way of a new discount scheme agreed upon by the two parties. Under the Aeronautical Information Publications (AIPs), Wizz Air was also the beneficiary of discounts and rebates on airport charges.
In 2010, Romanian regional airline Carpatair submitted a complaint to the Commission challenging the aid granted by Romanian authorities to Timisoara airport in favour of Wizz Air.
In February 2020, the European Commission decided that the public funding granted by Romania to Timisoara International Airport between 2007 and 2009 did not qualify as illegal state aid and cleared the charges to be paid by Wizz Air and other airlines on the basis of individual agreements, it said in a press release at the time.
Given the Commission’s decision, Carpatair brought action for its annulment of that decision.
The CJEU said it found that the Commission had failed to state the legal grounds for its conclusion that the 2008 agreements and the 2010 amendment agreements had not conferred an economic advantage on Wizz Air and that they therefore, did not constitute state aid.