Ryanair's angry reaction to the European Commission's ruling against its Charleroi Airport deal won little support elsewhere in the aviation industry yesterday, with rival low-cost carriers and full service airlines welcoming the decision.

Ryanair chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary claimed the Charleroi state aid ruling would "equally affect" many other deals across Europe, such as EasyJet arrangements at Berlin Schonefeld, Toulouse and Marseille airports, Lufthansa at Leipzig and Munich and FlyBE at Perpignan, Bergerac and La Rochelle.

EasyJet immediately undermined the Ryanair case, however, by claiming that the Commission decision was "supportive" of the low-cost airline industry.

It said it believed the intention to use the ruling as a basis for uniform guidelines on airport landing charges and tariffs across the EU would "help clarify arrangements between airports and airlines, be they low-cost, national flag carriers or charter".

It expressed support for Brussels' plan to "authorise variations to published tariffs at publicly-owned airports providing the procedure is transparent and does not lead to any discrimination".

FlyBE believed that none of its existing deals with French airports would fall under the ruling.

The Association of European Airlines, which chiefly represents the traditional flag carriers, said the Commission's judgment was "a first but important step towards a level playing field for European airlines".

AEA members have been under heavy attack from Ryanair for several years for charging what the Irish airline claims are extortionately high fares.

Mr Ulrich Schulte Strathaus, AEA secretary-general, said the Brussels ruling showed that "the fact that taxpayers' money is being used to redirect business from one group of private companies - the airlines at Brussels National Airport - to another private company, namely Ryanair, is simply unacceptable".