Ryanair opens third base in France at Toulouse and expands at Bordeaux and Marseilles

Low-cost airline Ryanair today (20 February) announced the opening of a new base at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport. As part of its 2019 Winter program, the airline will base two aircraft and connect to 20 destinations, of which eleven new destinations: Alicante, Brest, Budapest, Lille, Luxembourg, Marseille, Oujda, Palermo, Porto, Tangier and Valencia, which will annually bring 1 million passengers through Toulouse airport.

From October 2019, the new Ryanair base in Toulouse will provide:

• 2 aircraft based ($200 million investment)
• 11 new routes to Alicante (2 weekly), Brest (3), Budapest (2), Lille (one daily), Luxembourg (3), Marseille (one daily), Oujda (2), Palermo (2), Porto (3), Tangier (2) and Valencia (2)
• 20 destinations in total
• 1 million customers a year
• creating 60 new jobs at Ryanair
• annually 750 jobs “on site”

In Toulouse, David O’Brien, Commercial Director of Ryanair, said: “We are pleased to announce an investment of $200 million (2 aircraft) with the opening of Ryanair’s third French base at Toulouse Airport, which will bring 1 million customers a year, will create 60 pilot jobs and Ryanair cabin crew and will support 750 on-site jobs.

We are also delighted to announce the launch of our largest winter program in Toulouse, with 20 destinations, including 11 new ones, to cities as fascinating as Budapest, Oujda and Tangier. To celebrate this, we offer network sales seats starting from € 19.99 for a trip in October, available for booking until Friday, February 22 at midnight. Since these incredibly low prices will soon be snapped up, we invite customers to quickly connect to www.ryanair.com to enjoy.”

Philippe Crébassa, CEO of Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, said: “We are very pleased that Ryanair is strengthening its presence in Toulouse. The opening of a base with two planes will allow to develop the offer of the company from ‘La Ville rose’. The 11 new routes announced by Ryanair are also excellent news for the attractiveness of Occitanie in Europe“.

Ryanair’s Marseille Winter 2019 schedule will deliver:

• One extra based aircraft ($300m investment in total)
• 16 new routes to Agadir (2 pw), Alicante (2), Bologna (3), Bordeaux (4), Catania (2), Copenhagen (2), Essaouira (2), Manchester (2), Milan Bergamo (4), Naples (2), Ouarzazate (2), Prague (2), Sofia (2), Strasbourg (3), Tel Aviv (3) & Toulouse (daily)
• 43 routes in total
• 65 million customers p.a. (+38%)
• 90 new Ryanair jobs
• 1,990* “on-site” jobs p.a.

Julien Boullay, Commercial and Marketing Director, Marseille Airport, said:

“We are pleased to see Ryanair accelerate its development in Marseille, by basing a third aircraft this winter and by introducing new and highly awaited destinations, including Copenhagen in Northern Europe, Sofia in Eastern Europe and Essaouira in Morocco.

As of November 2019, Ryanair will grow its flights schedule by nearly 50%, which is excellent news for our region, both from a tourism and an economic point of view!”

Ryanair’s Bordeaux Winter 2019 schedule will deliver:

• One extra based aircraft ($300m investment in total)
• 23 new routes to Bari (2 pw), Bologna (2), Brest (3), Budapest (2), Cologne (3), Copenhagen (2), Dublin (2), Krakow (2), Lille (daily), Lisbon (5), Malaga (2), Manchester (2), Marseille (4), Nador (2), Nantes (4), Naples(2), Ouarzazate (2), Oujda (1) Palermo (2), Prague (2), Strasbourg (3), Tangier (2) & Treviso (3)
• 32 routes in total
• 4 million customers p.a. (+186%)
• 90 new Ryanair jobs
• 1,050* “on-site” jobs p.a.

Pascal Personne, Charmain of  Bordeaux Airport’s board, said:

“Ryanair’s decision to add a third aircraft during the first winter of its new base in Bordeaux is extremely encouraging and shows that the first results are already considered positive by the company. This complementary commitment can only benefit our region and significantly increase mobility offered by our platform to all residents of Bordeaux and Nouvelle-Aquitaine, as several routes operated only during the summer will now be operational in the long-term.

With the launch of new routes such as Nador and Oujda, Bordeaux becomes one of the French airports where Morocco will be the most easily accessible, nine cities of the Moroccan Kingdom will be connected directly. “