The EU Commission decides that the single charge agreement concerning airport services did not involve state aid (Bratislava Airport / Ryanair)

Airport Operators and Budget Airlines* During the past 18 months or so, the European Commission has launched more than 20 investigations in the funding of regional airports and the arrangements that these airports have concluded with budget airlines such as Ryanair. This posting analyses a very recent Commission decision which found that no State aid was granted to either the airport operator or Ryanair. This is because all financial transactions satisfied the market economy investor principle. Background After receiving a complaint from Bule1, Commission launched an investigation into certain arrangements between at Tampere-Pirkkala Airport [TPA]. The TPA has two terminals. Terminal 1 [T1] is used by Finnair, Flybe, SAS, Blue1 and Air Baltic. Terminal 2 [T2] was initially used as