Easyjet officially welcomes Charleroi ruling

Easyjet has officially welcomed this week’s European Commission ruling against Ryanair, while announcing a significant increase in passenger numbers over last year. As reported, Ryanair has been told it will have to pay back millions of pounds that it received as an incentive to use Charleroi Airport, in Belgium. Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said the decision represented “a disaster” and that he would be appealing against it. But Ryanair’s no-frills rival Easyjet today issued a statement welcoming the decision. It read: “We welcome this week’s decision by the European Commission clarifying the relationship between airlines and publicly-owned airports and see it as supportive of the low-cost airline industry.” At the same time, Easyjet said passenger numbers in January increased some 12.3% on the same month last year. The airline said it carried nearly 1.7 million passengers during the month, compared to just under 1.5 million last January.