Budget airline Ryanair does not have to repay a subsidy it got to encourage it to stay at Charleroi airport in Belgium, a European court has ruled.
The court upheld Ryanair's challenge against the European Commission, saying EU officials had made a mistake.
In 2004, the European Commission had said 4m euros of incentives paid to Ryanair had been illegal state aid.
Ryanair said the ruling "clarifies that the low cost airports model works and does not involve state aid".
It urged the Commission to dismiss complaints against other small airports.
(...)
The European Court of First Instance said that the deal between the Walloon region and Ryanair should have been considered as a private commercial deal.
"By entering into the first agreement with Ryanair the Walloon region carried out activities of an economic nature," it said.
From:
BBC News
Edit: And the comment by MOL:
“Today’s decision is great news for Charleroi, competition, consumers and low cost airports across Europe. Ryanair now calls on the EU Commission to drop their other State Aid cases against similar regional and secondary airports (Alghero, Aarhus, Bratislava, Frankfurt Hahn, Hamburg Lubeck, Pau, Berlin Schonefeld and Tampere), most of which have been brought to the Commission by larger competitor airports who are trying to block competition and lower fares.
“Ryanair will be using today’s pro-consumer decision by the CFI to call for an early meeting with DG Transport. We believe that now is the time for Ryanair and the EU Commission to build a better working relationship based on a shared objective of “putting consumers first” so that European’s largest international airline can work closely with Europe’s Transport Commission to promote and develop more low fare flights, more choice and competition, more regional and secondary airports, more jobs, and much more traffic and tourism growth for the benefit of European integration and all of Europe’s citizens. Today’s decision shows that both the Commission and Ryanair has made mistakes in the past, so it is time for Ryanair and the Commission to stop fighting, and we sincerely hope that the CFI ruling can be the catalyst for Ryanair and the EU Commission to work together to put Europe’s consumers first”.