Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has won a legal challenge to the European Commission blocking aid it got from Belgium’s Charleroi airport and the Wallonia regional government there.

Ryanair did a deal to pay reduced landing charges and get help with its set-up costs at the airport in return for flying regular services in and out and basing some of its planes there. The Commission said that was illegal state aid, but Europe’s second-highest court ruled Brussels had made an “error of law.” The decision was important because the Commission is looking at similar arrangements Ryanair has with nine other small airports around Europe. The airline said Brussels should now drop those probes, but a Commission spokeswoman said this judgement “does not have an immediate impact on the other cases,” adding the EU executive is now studying the court’s ruling.More about: Charleroi, Corporate

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