Ryanair May Stay In Charleroi Under Proposed Deal

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

14 April 2004

It emerged yesterday that a provisional deal has been struck between the Walloon authorities and budget airline, Ryanair, which would allow the company to continue flying to the Charleroi regional airport in Belgium.

Earlier this year, the European Commission ruled that the subsidies paid to the airline by the Walloon government in return for flying to Charleroi constituted illegal state aid, and ordered Ryanair to repay a portion of them.

However, under the proposed deal, passenger taxes would be lowered from 7 euros to 1 euro for all airlines flying into Charleroi, in an attempt to sidestep the EC ruling.

Speaking to the Guardian, on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Serge Kubla, Wallonia's economics minister, revealed that:

"Under this agreement, Ryanair will stay in Charleroi provisionally."

The proposed deal will go before the EC for approval this week. However, even if the Commission allows it to go ahead, the agreement will need to be renegotiated in the event that Charleroi handles more than 2 million passengers per year, as the earlier ruling stated that all subsidies must cease beyond that point.

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