At European Commission, Austerity Doesn't Always Cover Air Travel Maciej Kulczynski/European Pressphoto Agency Michael O'Leary, chief of Ryanair, is challenging the European Commission's policy that bars its travel agency from booking flights on low-cost carriers. BRUSSELS - Do officials overseeing the European Union walk the talk on austerity? Not always, it seems, when it comes to the way they fly. The European Commission, one of three institutions overseeing the extreme belt-tightening in Greece, has barred its travel agency from booking flights on low-cost carriers, which offer rock-bottom fares but few comforts. These carriers also tend to use secondary or relatively remote airports, which is how Michael O'Leary, the famously brash chief executive of Ryanair, the biggest budget carrier in Europe, found out about it. Invited by the commission to be a guest speaker at a conference on innovation late last year, Mr. O'Leary was told that travel expenses, including a driver from the main Brussels airport, were included. But when he asked to use his own airline - which flies into the rather optimistically named Brussels South Charleroi Airport, about 70 kilometers, or 44 miles, from Brussels - he was told such bookings were not possible. Nor would a driver be sent to pick him up. Instead, Mr. O'Leary was offered a ticket to the main airport on Aer Lingus - the former Irish flag carrier that the commission blocked him from buying in an acrimonious case five years ago. This week, lawyers for Ryanair filed a formal complaint with the European Court of Auditors, an independent body that reviews the commission's spending, asking it to assess "the legality, regularity and financial soundness" of the travel policy. The lawyers also wrote to the commission's most senior civil servant, Secretary General Catherine Day, demanding that she drop the restrictions on the travel agency, American Express Business Travel, according to documents reviewed by the International Herald Tribune. The European Commission has defended its policy as necessary to ensure flexibility for traveling officials whose plans can change at the last minute. In fact, many companies and governments operate in a similar fashion. Even in Greece, while the government does not bar its travel agents from booking low-cost carriers, it does not actively encourage their use, either, and ministers generally travel business class, according to government officials. The Court of Auditors declined to comment Wednesday on the complaint. The latest accusations of wastefulness are far from the first to be leveled against E.U. institutions and officials. Last year, José Manuel Barroso, president of the commission, and Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, which represents national governments, aroused ire by taking separate private jets to a meeting in Russia. And the entire European Parliament, more than 750 deputies and their staff, makes a costly trek from Brussels once a month to a second chamber in Strasbourg, drawing recurrent criticism even from members themselves. By attacking the travel policy, Mr. O'Leary is seeking to turn the tables on competition officials who have been investigating Ryanair for much of the past decade. In 2007, the commission blocked Ryanair's planned takeover of Aer Lingus on the grounds that the combined airline would have had a monopoly on too many routes. Mr. O'Leary accused the commission of bowing to political pressure from the Irish government, which had opposed the deal. The bailed-out Irish government is now looking to sell its 25 percent stake in Aer Lingus to raise cash, and Ryanair has recently confirmed that it would discuss selling its 30 percent share with any buyer. The commission also has long suspected Ryanair of using subsidies, like discounted landing charges from regional bodies seeking to increase business at provincial airports, to compete unfairly with airlines operating from more established airports. In 2004, the commission ruled that Ryanair would have to repay €4.5 million, or $5.9 million at current exchange rates, in incentives it received to establish a hub at Brussels South Charleroi Airport. Four years later, the second-highest E.U. court annulled that ruling.