orbitmic

In my view, that would not really be a fair way to interpret this because what you are doing here is that you are looking at shareholders loans as though they were state aids. I would argue that a shareholder loan is a shareholder loan especially when conditions are comparable (ie with the same market interest rates that the banks are offering), and whilst AFKL discussed those early, IAG also announced in late July their plans to get at least €2.75 billion from their shareholders (the figure may still increase). It is also worth remembering that much of that at least €700 million (in the first instance) will in fact be loaned to IAG by the Qatari state through Qatar Airways. In practice, IAG has partial if indirect state ownership just like AFKL, except that instead of coming from the "obvious" states, it actually comes from Qatar. In that context, states can act just as other shareholders, and in the case of Germany the money would come in exchange for ownership so again, something which is hardly mere help, more like a partial sale.

I also don't think any direct cash grant is involved with any of the main three airline groups. Those would incidentally be a lot harder to justify to EU competition authorities which would likely grind their teeth...

So on balance, IAG is getting less in loans than AFKL and LH Group, but not multiples of that (If I'm getting my totals right, the numbers are about 5, 7, and 9 respectively comparing like for like in amounts, but AF-KL is getting major operational constraints as a price to pay such as needing to close most domestic routes which are critical to its long haul viability (under the French rules, BA would have needed to close LHR-MAN, LHR-EDI, and LHR-GLA for instance though would have been able to keep LHR-ABZ), and the LH group is paying a price in terms of ownership shift, whilst IAG is getting its help without any counterpart (bar reimbursing the money like all of the others).