Ryanair will close its base in Bordeaux-Mérignac

This is a serious blow to the activity of Bordeaux-Mérignac airport. Ryanair, the Irish low-cost airline, has been established there for 14 years.

The closure is scheduled for November 2024, according to an official announcement from the boss of Ryanair. If everything goes as it should, the matter will be over by the end of year holidays. The reason given is increased costs.

The company, which currently operates around forty flights to and from Bordeaux, will move its planes and 90 Gironde employees, pilots, flight attendants and engineers, to bases located elsewhere in the group’s vast network in Europe. .

Discussions between the company and airport management failed. They focused on airport costs, the taxes that companies must pay to access infrastructure and ground services.

The CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has been brandishing the threat since March 2024, but nothing has happened, the two camps continuing to pass the buck. Ryanair speaks of a doubling of financial costs, but for the airport management, it is a question of “erroneous statements”. The company maintains its decision and the airport says it is leaving the door to discussions open.

Like other regional airport infrastructures in France, Bordeaux-Mérignac is suffering from the government’s decision to prohibit domestic air connections that can be made in less than 2.5 hours by train. This decree follows the Citizens’ Climate Convention of 2019, requested by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and which gave birth to the Climate Law of 2021.

In the name of the fight against global warming, the Paris-Orly/Bordeaux plane connection has stopped, but airlines must continue to survive and respond to customer demand for ever cheaper fares.

However, a company must ensure financial balance to operate and maintain jobs. Unless there is a turnaround in the negotiations with the management of Bordeaux-Mérignac, Ryanair will therefore live its life elsewhere in Europe from 2025.