=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2008/12/17/financial/= f010044S74.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, December 17, 2008 (AP) EU court backs Ryanair in airport subsidy battle By AOIFE WHITE, AP Business Writer (12-17) 08:51 PST BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- An EU court on Wednesday backed budget airline Ryanair in a battle with state aid regulators on how far small airports can use public money to attract low-cost carriers. The ruling from the European Union's appeals court allows Ryanair to keep a discount of more than euro4 million ($5.48 million) that it received from the Belgian Walloon regional government to help run flights out of the state-owned Charleroi airport. Charleroi originally gave the Irish airline up to 90 percent of its costs over 15 years in a deal that Ryanair has mimicked with regional airports across Europe. The EU Court of First Instance said the European Commission was wrong to demand Ryanair refund the sum in 2004, saying antitrust regulators had made a mistake in deciding the payments were an illegal state subsidy and not checking whether private investors would also have offered Ryanair low fees to start using the airport. Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said there was "no doubt" that t= he court decision also made meaningless other EU investigations into claims that Ryanair received illegal subsidies at eight other airports in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Slovakia "A public authority like the Walloon Region or Charleroi is allowed to behave like a private airport behaves and that is to enter into long-term low-cost arrangements with an airline like Ryanair which in return guarantees very rapid traffic growth," he told reporters. EU spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen insisted that the judgment "does not have an immediate impact on the other cases" and said it was too early to say if regulators would appeal. O'Leary claimed there weren't much grounds for appeal in the court rulin= g. Ryanair Holdings PLC, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, triggered a revolution in air travel by offering bargain fares that saw millions more Europeans take to the skies — even if that meant an hour-long trip from a regional airport to their city destination. O'Leary said Charleroi had boomed after it struck its pact with Ryanair, pulling in other airlines and nearly 2 million passengers a year — and becoming a valuable business worth some euro100 million ($137 million). "The Ryanair partnership with Charleroi has transformed an airport that was in 2001 effectively unused and empty. Today it is a growing, thriving, profitable international airport," he said. But other airlines and Brussels' main airport, Zaventem, had complained that Ryanair's special treatment from the Walloon government was unfair. EU regulators ruled in February 2004 that parts of the Ryanair contract were illegal state aid and must be changed. Ryanair struck deals in 2000 with the airport's owner — the Walloon Region — and the Brussels South Charleroi Airport company, or BSCA — also owned by the Walloon Region — which operates the airport, 42 kilometers (26 miles) south of the Belgian capital Brussels. The Walloon Region gave Ryanair a half-price deal on landing charges that are usually fixed by regulation and promised to compensate the airline if it lost money on any changes to airport charges. In return, Ryanair pledged to base two to four aircraft at the airport a= nd turn each around at least three times a day. The deal was for 15 years. The BSCA also said it would help fund Ryanair's costs and pay it euro1 ($1.37) per passenger for ground handling — rather than the euro10 ($13.69) it charges other airlines. The EU ordered the Belgian government to retrieve the discount that Ryanair got. The money was frozen in a bank account until Wednesday's appeal. Ryanair said it would now get that money back plus interest and some of the costs of legal action. Ryanair's deal with Charleroi was renegotiated in 2005 and extended at lower cost, the company said. O'Leary said Ryanair was now in talks with starting services at 47 airports that it doesn't fly to, including Brussels Zaventem, Copenhagen and several in Italy following a rash of airline cutbacks and collapses in recent months. ------------------------------------------------------------= ---------- Copyright 2008 AP <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".