Europe's largest budget airline, Ryanair, said on July 29 that it had complained to the European Commission (EC) about a EUR10 Irish government tax on air travel.

The Irish airline, which warned this week that full-year profits would come in at the low end of expectations, as it cuts fares to attract passengers, has long argued that the tax is putting people off flying.

Ryanair said its complaint to the EC was based on the tax being discriminatory and that it represented illegal state aid because transfer/transit passengers and cargo traffic were exempted from it, and local airline Aer Arann paid less on some of its routes.