The European Commission has approved 24.7 million euros ($29 million) of Italian state aid for Alitalia to compensate the airline for losses suffered during the pandemic, the EU executive said on Friday.
It is the third authorisation for subsidies to Alitalia that the Commission has approved since the beginning of the pandemic, it said in a statement.
The new support measure takes to nearly 300 million euros the total of state aid approved by the EU in favour of Alitalia for damages caused by the pandemic from March to December 2020.
“The measure approved today enables Italy to provide further compensation for direct damages suffered by Alitalia between November and December 2020,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
She added that the EU’s investigations continue into two support measures worth a total of 1.3 billion euros that Italy granted to Alitalia in 2017 and 2019.
Main Photo: An Embraer ERJ-175 aircraft of Italian carrrier Alitalia (EI-RDE) taxies at Milan Linate airport, Italy. EPA-EFE/Andrea Fasani
