Belgian airline company Brussels Airlines has filed an official complaint with the European Commission against the “illegal state aid” it claims Charleroi Airport receives.

The complaint relates to the terminal navigation charge, which the Belgian air traffic controller Skeyes receives per plane taking off at Brussels Airport. Airlines have to pay part of that amount at the national airport, while at the regional airports, regional authorities intervene for the total amount.

“The regional airports and Brussels Airport are not treated in the same way,” says Brussels Airlines CEO Dorothea von Boxberg, who has headed Lufthansa subsidiary Brussels Airlines since mid-April. According to her, that unequal treatment costs the airline around 10 million euros annually.

Unfair competition

Von Boxberg denounces the fact that the federal and regional governments pay that levy in full at regional airports like Charleroi, which competes directly with them. In contrast, Brussels Airlines has to pay most of it by itself. This puts Brussels Airlines at a disadvantage against low-cost airline Ryanair, the biggest user of Charleroi.

Ryanair has said in the past that it would like to expand its operations in Belgium with more slots at Brussels Airport. Still, according to the company, “Brussels Airlines refuses to give us the available slots”.

At the time, Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary also sharply lashed out at Lufthansa, the parent company of Brussels Airlines. According to him, it uses European regulations as an excuse to fly planes empty to retain their landing rights. “That is a way to protect itself from the competition of low-cost airlines,” he said. In addition, Ryanair has closed its base at Brussels Airport and swapped it for Charleroi Airport as fares have been raised by 11%.

Everyone is equal before the law

The complaint comes only from Brussels Airlines and is directed against Charleroi Airport, and thus not Antwerp Airport or Airport Oostend-Bruges, because it is its most direct competitor. “We are talking about the same passengers going to an airport from Brussels, and so that has a direct impact on us,” von Boxberg says.

She also argues that Charleroi has not been a regional airport for a long time. “At the European level, a regional airport is an airport with less than three million passengers a year,” the CEO says.

Brussels South Charleroi Airport received more than eight million passengers in 2022. “There is no reason why that airport should be treated differently. Either the state pays the levy in full for everyone, or the airlines pay their share equally,” she says. There is no deadline set for the inquiry. Von Boxberg expects it could take a year.

‘Banning night flights is not acceptable’

That Brussels Airlines is just now filing the complaint is perhaps not surprising. On Friday, Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) announced plans to ban night flights at Brussels Airport, the home base of Brussels Airlines. Although the whole dossier has yet to be negotiated on the government’s table, everyone is tightening their position.

While von Boxberg is not opposed to measures gradually reducing nuisance, she considers the proposal to eliminate all night flights ‘unacceptable from an aviation perspective’. According to her, it would certainly be a reasonable and achievable target to say that there should be a noise reduction year after year. But this current ‘from everything to nothing’ application makes the proposal difficult.

Study growth

She is also clear about Brussels Airlines’ ambition for the coming years: sturdy growth, with additional aircraft, quieter and more fuel-efficient than their predecessors, new destinations in Europe and Africa, and more employees (from 3 300 employees currently to 3 500 by the end of the year).

Among other things, there is talk of a tenth long-haul airplane, which could open new destinations in Africa. In terms of profitability, the long-term goal remains to achieve a profit margin of 8%. That margin is considered essential to be self-sustainable as a company.