The standoff between Ryanair and the French government ultimately yielded only a half-measure. After threatening to abandon ten French regional services to protest the drastic increase in the tax on airline tickets, the Irish airline is backtracking. It will remain in France, of course, but will reduce its flights by "4 to 5%" this year, according to its iconic boss, Michael O'Leary. The reason for this relative decline? The French market is simply "not competitive," he explains bluntly, comparing the French stagnation to the Italian boom: "In Italy, we now carry 65 million passengers compared to only 11 million in France this year."
A tax that costs the regions dearly
At the heart of the controversy: the infamous solidarity tax on airline tickets (TSBA), whose price has exploded this year, rising from €2,63 to €7,40 per passenger for European flights. This tax decision is deemed absurd by Ryanair, which cites the announced closure of its Bordeaux base and the planned withdrawal of Vatry Airport, in the Marne department, as examples to illustrate the concrete consequences of this policy. France's regional airports, which are heavily dependent on low-cost airlines, fear the worst. Beauvais, Carcassonne, Béziers, and Nîmes now rely almost exclusively on the traffic generated by these low-cost airlines.
For Michael O'Leary, the French contradiction is glaring: "We can't ask for more competitiveness from Europe while taxing airline tickets to death at the national level," he states, denouncing French fiscal relentlessness in the process. Ryanair therefore remains, though not without bitterness, ready to gradually reduce its activities if the pressure doesn't ease.
