Briefing - EC & Competition Group (State Aid Rules - Aviation Sector), February 2009
06.02.2009
On 17 December 2008, the CFI annulled the European Commission’s 2004 decision concerning Charleroi airport and the financial package that Ryanair had received in order to encourage it to base aircraft at the airport and to develop routes (“Charleroi decision”).
In the Charleroi decision, the Commission found that the offering of reduced landing charges to Ryanair amounted to illegal State Aid as this activity came within the Walloon Region’s public authority functions and that the private investor test was not, as a consequence applicable. The CFI disagreed. The fixing of landing fees does relate to the management of airport infrastructure, and is therefore an “economic activity”. The Commission should have applied the private investor test but failed to do so. The Charleroi decision had to be annulled.
