A decision on whether Alitalia will have to pay back millions of euros in state aid is not far off, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday.
“A decision is not too far in the calendar because we have worked this case a lot,” Vestager told a news conference.
In 2017 Rome granted a bridge loan worth 900 million euros (776.22 million pounds), which has not been paid back, and at the beginning of this year it pumped in a further 400 million euros, reported Reuters.
The European Commission has been investigating whether this state aid gives the airline an unfair advantage.
Citing EU rules, Vestager said a new company would have to be materially different from the original firm to avoid being liable to repay state aid.
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