Probe will cost Ryanair millions
RYANAIR admitted for the first time today it expects to take a hit of millions of euros as a result of the investigation into allegedly illegal payments it receives for flying to Brussels-Charleroi airport in Belgium.
The news sent shares in the Dublin-listed budget airline tumbling 28 cents to e6.70, extending their fall to more than 10% in the past couple of weeks.
The European Commission is expected to rule next week on payments the Walloon regional government made in subsidies and incentives to Ryanair to get it to fly to publicly-owned Charleroi.
Quizzed on the cost of the EC decision at a news conference in Brussels today, Jim Callaghan, Ryanair's head of regulatory affairs, admitted: 'It's going to be in the millions.'
It is reckoned Charleroi paid Ryanair e3.8m (£2.6m) during 2002, the year it made the airport its European hub.
Subsidies are understood to be paid to Ryanair based on the number of services, enabling it keep prices at rock bottom. Flights from Stansted are currently as low as £1.99.
Up to a quarter of the European airports Ryanair flies to are believed to be municipally owned and to pay incentives to Ryanair.
