LOW-FARE carrier Ryanair has clinched a deal that will allow the airline to carry on flying to and from Charleroi, near Brussels.

The Irish no-frills airline's future at the Belgian airport was in doubt after a European Commission ruling.

The EC ordered it to repay millions of euros in Belgian subsidies because some of the handouts for using Charleroi airport broke EU laws.

Ryanair said it had concluded a deal with Charleroi and with Belgium's regional Walloon authorities that will mean, subject to EC approval, that the company can carry on with 11 services from the airport.

The deal includes the charges for Ryanair to use Charleroi continuing until the airport reaches two million passengers a year.

Also, the Walloon authorities will make Ryanair's subsidy arrangement available to other airlines using Charleroi. Ryanair could base more aircraft at, and fly more routes from, Charleroi subject to a new terminal being constructed.

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said: "This agreement was timely because we have negotiated a number of other airport base arrangements in recent months at costs which are lower than that at Brussels Charleroi, and there was a real likelihood that in the absence of an early agreement with Brussels Charleroi, we would have closed the base and moved the aircraft and the low-fare routes elsewhere.

"These lower-cost alternatives again highlight the flaw in the recent EC decision on the cost base at Brussels Charleroi.

"The entire basis of the commission's flawed decision was that no private airport would enter such an arrangement.

"We have repeatedly confirmed that we had other lower-cost arrangements at the time, and that other airports continue to offer us lower-cost alternatives today because they want to share in the enormous traffic growth and commercial profits that Ryanair's low fare services deliver."