Catalytic wet air oxidation is a promising alternative for the treatment of phenolic waste water which cannot be treated in conventional sewage plants. Catalytic wet air oxidation of an aqueous phenol solution was conducted in a fixed bed reactor operating in trickle flow regime. Either active carbon or a commercial copper oxide supported over gamma-alumina was used as catalyst. The performance of both materials was compared in terms of phenol conversion in 240 h tests. The results showed that the active carbon, without any active metal supported, gives the highest phenol conversion. The supported copper catalyst undergoes a rapid deactivation due to the dissolution of the metal active species in the acidic medium in which the reaction takes place. On the other hand, the active carbon maintains a higher activity throughout the test, although a decrease of the phenol conversion was also observed due to both the loss of active carbon by combustion and the reduction of its surface area. The phenol oxidation was proved to occur through a first order mechanism with respect to phenol. After the ten-day run, the catalytic activity of the active carbon was found to be about eight times higher than that of the commercial catalyst, also showing high selectivity to the production of carbon dioxide.