The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether operating aid granted to Béziers airport, as well as marketing and airport services agreements concluded between Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) and the French regional airport operators are in line with EU state aid rules, according to a press release.

The commission received a complaint concerning operating aid granted to the successive operators in Béziers from 2007 to today. The airport was owned and managed from 2007 to 2011 by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Béziers St Pons, and since 2011 by the joint venture "Pôle aéroportuaire Béziers Cap d'Agde Hérault - Occitanie". The latter is exclusively composed of local and regional public authorities.

The complaint also concerned marketing and airport services agreements concluded between the ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) and the airport operators during the same period. The complainant alleged that the operating aid and the contracts amounted to illegal state aid in favour of Ryanair and the Béziers airport.

In recent years, the commission has concluded several cases regarding aid to airlines aimed at attracting or maintaining airlines' capacity at certain airports, finding that they were not in line with state aid rules. Examples include the airports of Montpellier, Nîmes Garons, Pau, and Angoulême in France, Altenburg in Germany, Klagenfurt in Austria, and the Sardinian airports of Cagliari, Olbia and Alghero in Italy.

Also, the commission is currently investigating further agreements between public authorities and airlines at certain regional airports, for example concerning the German airport of Frankfurt Hahn or the Spanish airports of Reus and Girona.

Béziers is a regional airport located in the French region of Occitanie and served more than 250,000 passengers in 2019. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, the ULCC currently offers flights to Brussels Charleroi, London Luton, and Paris Beauvais. In the summer, Ryanair's schedule expands to include Bristol International, Düsseldorf Weeze, Edinburgh, London Stansted, and Manchester International.