France supports the airline Air France, which got into a spin because of the Corona crisis, with loan aid amounting to seven billion euros. Three billion are government loans and four billion guarantees for bank loans, said France’s Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire on TV channel TF1.
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“We have to save our national airline,” said Le Maire. However, the announced help is “not a blank check”. There are profitability conditions and Air France has to become the airline that is the most careful with the environment worldwide. Nationalization is not planned. The EU Commission still has to agree to the aid.
Billions in aid also for Renault
Air France’s sister company, the Dutch KLM, can also expect two to four billion euros in grants, according to the Dutch government. The government is also helping the airline because of its importance for Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport and the entire economy of the Netherlands, said Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra. According to Hoekstra, the aid is taxpayers’ money, so the airline will also have to give consideration, the minister said.
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Air France and KLM had previously announced, according to the AP news agency, that joint air traffic would change in the coming months could collapse up to 90 percent.
In France, the Le Maire government is also working on state guarantees for bank loans of up to five billion euros for the car maker Renault. The auto industry and a million jobs would be at stake. As with Air France, the state’s default guarantee is said to be 90 percent of the loan amount. The French state is a shareholder in both companies.
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Airlines have experienced serious to existential crises worldwide with the collapse of air traffic due to the corona pandemic. The automobile industry is also suffering from slumps in production and sales as a result of the epidemic. The French government is also planning further aid for the restaurants and hotels affected by the crisis and their employees.
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