Ryanair lands first base in France

Ryanair may be experiencing problems in its efforts to come to Malta but it has had no hesitation in making the southern French port of Marseilles its 16th European base.

The airline said on its website that from November Marseilles will serve 13 routes and deliver almost one million passengers per year to those destinations.

Ryanair will connect Marseilles to Brussels, Dublin, Eindhoven, Fez, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Karlsruhe Baden, London, Marrakech, Oujda, Oslo, Porto and Rome. Fares start from just €1 for a one-way ticket excluding taxes.

Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary said: "Ryanair's first base in France marks a major breakthrough for French passengers/visitors who will no longer suffer Air France's high fares...

"This traffic will sustain 1,000 jobs while allowing passengers in the region to enjoy low fare flights and end the high fare monopoly of Air France."

Ryanair has been critical of the fees levelled by Malta International Airport as it seeks to put Malta on its map.

But last month Investments Minister Austin Gatt attacked a low-cost airline - taken by many to mean Ryanair - which he said was asking for subsidies to fly to Malta.

Dr Gatt said: "The 'low-cost-at-all-costs brigade' conveniently ignore the simple fact that it is the low-cost airlines that do not want to enter the field of competition. It is the low-cost airlines (or, more precisely, a particular one) that are asking for subsidies - a word which is anathema when associated with state enterprises but seemingly acceptable if given to a privately-owned company."

However, Ryanair's chief operating officer and deputy chief executive Michael Cawley had retorted by saying that the airline was not seeking any subsidies or any preferential treatment against any other airline.

"The facts are that, as a result of its occupying a monopoly position, the charges at Malta International Airport are between three and four times those of Ryanair's average airport cost throughout Europe and indeed are 2.5 times those at London Stansted Airport.

"Dr Gatt's protection of and concern for the status quo would be understandable but for the fact that tourism numbers in Malta have been broadly static for a decade and in reverse mode for the last two years, against a backdrop of double-digit growth in many major European markets," he said.