France travel warning: Ryanair threatens to scrap flight route to Bordeaux over airport fees

Ryanair has threatened to shut its base at a European holiday hotspot over rising airport fees. The budget airline said it would halt its flight route to Bordeaux if the southwestern French airport raises its fees, resulting in job losses, according to a union.

Claiming fees are double the current cost, Michael O'Leary, head of the low-cost Irish airline, told AFP: "The airport I think wants to double our cost, we're not willing to pay double the cost at Bordeaux....I think there's a real risk we might close the base in Bordeaux maybe at the end of the summer season.

"We have three aircraft based there, we've got a very successful operation, lots of good employees. But if the response of the airport is 'pay us double the fees', the answer is no. We'll move the aircraft somewhere else."

Ryanair, which competes with airlines such as Jet2, Easyjet, TUI, and others, established its presence in Bordeaux in 2009 and opened its own operational centre in April 2019. The firm has two aircraft stationed at this location and operates about 70 weekly flights from the Gironde hub. According to industry statistics, Bordeaux-Merignac Airport, which was the eighth busiest in France in 2023 with 6.6 million passengers, has yet to fully recover from the Covid pandemic. This figure is just 85.5 percent of pre-Covid 2019 levels whereas the average for French airports was 92.7 percent.

The Bordeaux airport also suffered substantially as a result of the cancellation of its flights to Paris, which was caused by a French government regulation banning domestic flights that can be replaced by rail travel within three hours.

In a statement to the AFP, the airport said it "regrets that Ryanair has informed its employees, without talking to Bordeaux airport, of the possibility of closing its base". It added that it "is regrettable that Ryanair and its management make totally erroneous comments about the level of charges at the airport".

The SNPNC-FO union has also expressed its "profound concern" about Ryanair's threats, which it said affected 120 jobs.