The EU's General Court has annulled a July 2021 decision by the European Commission to approve €321 million ($345 million) in German state aid to local charter airline Condor. In a case bought by Ryanair, the court ruled that the Commission had acted illegally in failing to initiate a formal investigation prior to approving the aid, and should also have questioned whether the aid met burden-sharing requirements – which stipulate that the beneficiary of assistance should share the resulting gains with the state that provided it. "There is nothing in the contested decision to suggest that the Commission ascertained whether the aid at issue had been granted on terms that would afford Germany a reasonable share of future gains in the value of Condor," states the court. "Furthermore, those doubts that the Commission should have had necessarily affect its assessment of the scope of the measures to limit distortions of competition foreseen in its decision and that are applicable to Condor." However, the court also decided that Ryanair could only contest the procedural process of the decision, rather than the content. "Ryanair has not demonstrated that the aid at issue was liable to have a substantial adverse effect on its competitive position and that it was therefore individually concerned by the decision of the Commission," states the court.
An earlier ruling by the court, likewise in a case bought by Ryanair, annulled liquidity support provided to Condor amid the Covid crisis. Welcoming the ruling, Ryanair describes it as a "triumph for fair competition and consumers across the EU". The airline asserts that €40 billion in "discriminatory state subsidies" was given to European legacy carriers during the pandemic. Ryanair is now urging the European Commission to "immediately act to recover these illegal state-aid packages and order remedies to restore at least some of the damage done to competition and consumers".

Emirates and Flynas have signed a memorandum of understanding, expanding their interline partnership into a bilateral arrangement. The UAE carrier says the expanded partnership will enable Flynas passengers to connect across any of its Saudi Arabian gateways to destinations in the east and west Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Europe, via Dubai. It notes that the current interline partnership provides its passengers with enhanced connectivity via four Saudi gateways – Riyadh, Jeddah, Medinah and Dammam – to 15 points in the kingdom.

Flydubai is undergoing a retrofit project to completely upgrade the cabin interiors for the majority of its next-generation Boeing fleet. "The multi-million dollar retrofit project was launched in January and eight aircraft have had a full cabin refresh with the installation of its flagship lie-flat business class seats and the new economy seats from Recaro that mirror the cabin product on its newer aircraft in the fleet," the UAE-based carrier says. Its fleet consists of 29 Boeing 737-800s, 54 737 Max 8s and three 737 Max 9s. The airline will retain an all-economy configuration on some of its aircraft and will upgrade the seats to the new Recaro economy seats with inflight entertainment. Flydubai will also increase the seat pitch on its recliner business class seat product on some of its newer aircraft from 45 to 53 inches. "This project will be rolled out after the summer and is predominantly designed to offer a more comfortable travel experience on shorter to medium-haul flights around the region," it adds. The project is being carried out by both Flydubai's inhouse maintenance team and GMR Aerotech. The airline expects to complete the retrofit programme before the end of the year. Flydubai handled almost five million passengers between 1 January and 28 April, a 13% year on year, mainly supported by additional capacity across its network. Flydubai says it continues to add capacity across its markets with the frequency across its GCC market back to pre-pandemic levels. The carrier has increased its network to more than 125 destinations in 58 countries with the start of operations to five new destinations since the start of this year.