The European Commission has approved €11.7 million in state aid provided to the manager of Carcassonne airport between 2001 and 2011. At the same time, the Commission determined that agreements made during this period between Carcassonne airport and airlines, specifically Ryanair, amounted to about €1.8 million in incompatible state aid. France is now required to recover this sum.
The investigation began on April 4, 2012, after a complaint was lodged regarding agreements between Ryanair and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Carcassonne-Limoux-Castelnaudary (CCI), which managed Carcassonne airport until 2011. The inquiry also examined government funding granted to CCI for compliance with EU State aid rules.
According to the Commission, from 2001 to 2011, CCI received subsidies mainly from local and regional authorities: €9 million supported investment in airport infrastructure and €2.7 million funded operational costs. The Commission found these subsidies met the requirements of the Aviation Guidelines because they were necessary for modernizing the airport and supporting its operations without resulting in excessive profits or unfair competition with other nearby airports such as Castres-Mazamet, Perpignan, Béziers, and Toulouse-Blagnac. An additional €1.1 million was used for activities like firefighting and customs control, which fall outside EU State aid rules.
During this period, CCI entered into several marketing agreements with Ryanair and its subsidiary AMS. These contracts included payments totaling €8.9 million for marketing services as well as arrangements on airport charges and commitments by Ryanair to operate certain routes and meet passenger targets.
The Commission concluded that eleven out of sixteen marketing and service agreements signed with Ryanair/AMS represented incompatible State aid. To reach this decision, it applied a market economy operator test (MEOP) by calculating whether a private operator would have agreed to similar terms based on profitability assessments using net present value (NPV). Eleven contracts failed this test because higher marketing fees were paid while passenger charges were reduced, benefiting Ryanair.
The total advantage conferred on Ryanair through these agreements is estimated at €1.8 million. France must now recover this amount plus interest from the airline group involved. The recovery process aims to remove any distortion of competition created by unlawful aid; returning these funds does not serve as a penalty but restores competitive balance within the internal market.
Under EU State aid rules—specifically Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union—public support is considered free from state aid only if provided under conditions that a private investor would accept under normal market circumstances.
A non-confidential version of the decision will be published under case number SA.33962 in the State Aid Register on the European Commission’s competition website once confidentiality issues are resolved.
“The purpose of recovery is to restore the situation which existed in the internal market before the aid was paid, and hence does not constitute a fine,” stated an official release from the Commission.
