Ryanair is a low-cost airline. It is also a sleazy one. It cuts costs by finding loopholes in the airline safety rules (eg covering maximum working hours for pilots, frequency and thoroughness of inspections, ...). It also cuts sleazy deals.
This specific case is about a deal between Ryanair and Charleroi airport in Belgium. Ryanair agreed to move one of their main hubs to Charleroi, in exchange for reduced landing fees. They pay less than at any other competing airport, and less than other users of the same airport.
Sounds like good old free-market capitalism, right? Wrong.
The fees paid by Ryanair are less than the operating costs of the airport, so Charleroi is selling landing slots at a loss. How can they do this?
Simple. Charleroi airport is not a private company. It is state owned, and its losses - quite large losses - are paid for by the Belgian government. So in effect the belgian taxpayer is subsidising the Ryanair traveler, in order to buy votes in Charleroi.
The rules of the EU forbid subsidies to state industries that compete with the private sector, for obvious reasons. These rules are broken all the time. Big countries, such as France and Germany, get away with it. It seems Belgium is small enought to be made to toe the line.
So no, this is not an assault on free competition. It is an assault on state intervention detrimental to the free market.