The Ryanair company threatened on Wednesday to stop serving ten French regional airports from January 1 if increased taxation of the air sector is included in the 2025 budget.
“Ryanair is currently reviewing its French programs and expects to reduce capacity to and from French regional airports by up to 50% from January 2025 if the French government continues with its short-sighted plan,” said Ryanair's commercial director. Irish low-cost carrier, Jason McGuinness, quoted in a press release.
Ryanair currently serves 22 airports in France, including two close to the Paris region: Beauvais (Oise) and Vatry (Marne). The regional airports affected by the end of operations would therefore be among the 20 others. Ryanair did not cite any on Wednesday.
The company also did not wish to say to what extent its total supply in France would be reduced if it carried out its threat. It hopes to transport 5.7 million people there this year, 19% more than in 2023.
In search of funds to reduce a larger-than-expected budget deficit, the government included in its 2025 finance bill (PLF) a tripling of the solidarity tax on plane tickets (TSBA) and an increase of the taxation of private jet passengers, for a total of one billion euros.
“The impact of increasing taxes on passengers will be most detrimental for regional France, which depends on competitive access costs,” argued Mr. McGuinness, estimating that this “will make many routes to and from the non-viable French regions.
At the beginning of November, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary revealed that his company was reducing capacity in France and Germany, two countries having increased taxation on the airline sector or planning to do so.
Ryanair, the leading European airline in terms of passengers carried, has faced headwinds in recent months, between delivery delays of its Boeing 737MAX aircraft which are restricting its capacity and the drop in demand which is forcing it to reduce its prices and affecting its profitability.
But during an interview with AFP, Mr. McGuinness assured that it was the increase in the TSBA which represented “a fundamental problem for the connectivity of French regions”.
There is, he argued, “enormous competition between airports, regions and countries at the moment in Europe” to attract airlines: “we have no shame in saying that we will direct our capabilities to places that will work with us to reduce these costs.
The risk of loss of competitiveness for France, the world's leading tourist power, has also been highlighted by officials in the country's air sector.
According to the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (Fnam), the increase in the TSBA, which companies will have to pass on to the price of tickets, “could lead to a reduction in traffic in 2025 of 2% on average over the 'entire territory'.
This decline could be even greater at certain airports, particularly those welcoming low-cost airlines whose customers are more price sensitive, according to Fnam.
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