The Local
The move represents a return of the hub at Marseille which closed in 2011 and a completely new hub in Bordeaux.
The two bases are set to open by the summer of 2019 which will allow the airline to schedule more flights and improve its timetables, particularly for early morning flights, according to company chiefs.
And as part of this growth, the airline will be offering 16 new routes from Bordeaux.
These will be to Bari in Italy, Cologne Bonn in Germany, Copenhagen in Denmark, Dublin in Ireland, Fez in Morocco, Krakow in Poland and Manchester in England.
On top of that, there will be new routes to Marrakech in Morocco, Marseille, Mykonos in Greece, Nantes, Naples in Italy, Ouarzazate in Morocco,Tangiers in Morocco, Valence and Venice Treviso in Italy.
In total, there will 24 Ryanair services operating out of Bordeaux from the summer of 2019.
Similarly, there will be 11 new services from Marseille.
That means passengers will be able to fly to Agadir in Morocco, Alicante in Spain, Bologna in Italy, Bordeaux, Bucharest in Romania, Budapest in Hungary, Manchester, Naples, Ouarzazate in Morocco, Prague in the Czech Republic and Warsaw in Poland.
The move is all part of a wider plan to double passenger numbers in France over the next “three or four years” which was announced in January, with the two new hubs representing an investment of $400 million and the creation of 120 jobs.
The company’s commercial director David O’Brien said in January that the decision to open bases in France is motivated by “a more favorable economic environment in France” due to the country’s new government.
However they could face some opposition over the contracts they are planning to offer their employees.
In January, the company announced that it would hire its employees under an Irish contract which is a sore spot for the unions carrying out strikes across Europe in a bid to get staff contracts from their own countries.
The company also announced in January that it would be opening four new hubs in France however so far no announcements have been made about where the final two would be located.
However, Ryanair previously said Paris Beauvais (where Ryanair flights account for 80 percent of the traffic), Nantes, Toulouse and Lyon were all possible contenders.
