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EasyJet announces closure of south-west France hub

Hard on the heels of Ryanair announcing it is leaving Bordeaux, the budget airline easyJet has said that it intends to close its 'hub' in another southern French airport. However, the impacts will be very different for passengers at the two airports.

Published: 12 September 2024 11:05 CEST
EasyJet announces closure of south-west France hub
This picture taken on September 27, 2019 shows an Airbus A20-200 of British low cost compagny Easyjet ready to taking off from the Toulouse-Blagnac airport, near Toulouse. (Photo by PASCAL PAVANI / AFP)

The low-cost airline easyJet announced on Tuesday that it would be closing its base at the Toulouse-Blagnac airport in south-west France by March 2025.

Breaking: French easyJet staff call strike over Toulouse hub closure

However, this ‘hub closure’ will primarily impact the 125 easyJet staff at the airport, rather than customers, who will see no changes to flights.

EasyJet told The Local France that they are “committed to continuing to serve Toulouse as a destination and to offer flights. The 20 routes served by easyJet in Toulouse will be maintained.

The airline added: “The proposed closure of easyJet’s Toulouse base, which will be decided following consultation with its social partners, will therefore have no impact on passengers and easyJet will continue service in Toulouse.”

The announcement was greeted with anger by unions, who announced an unlimited strike.

In contrast to Ryanair’s exit from the Bordeaux-Mérignac airport in November 2024 – where Ryanair flights will be cancelled, with some routes taken on by other low-cost carriers – the easyJet hub closure is primarily a staff reorganisation.

As a result, Ryanair customers in Bordeaux will be impacted by the change, but easyJet customers, including those flying from the UK to Toulouse, will not.

Toulouse-Blagnac is France’s sixth most frequented airport, with over seven million passengers using it per year, two million of whom travel with easyJet.

Bertrand Godinot, the easyJet director for France said in a press release that the decision was based on “a combination of factors, including a slower post-Covid recovery as well as pressure due to inflation, which have impacted easyJet’s ability to invest more in France.”

READ MORE: All the new flights to and from France this autumn

In total, easyJet employs 1,800 people in France, under French work contracts.

What about other easyJet hubs and flights?

The airline has announced plans to open 36 new routes in France in 2024, including some new flight offerings from Bordeaux airport, after Ryanair closes its hub in November 2024.

READ MORE: What will happen to flights from Bordeaux airport after Ryanair leaves?

However, there are other restructuring plans, including “the movement of one aircraft from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle to Paris-Orly and a small-scale voluntary redundancy plan for cabin crew based in France at three specific bases,” easyJet said in their press release.

These changes are “part of the airline’s long-term strategy to ensure the sustainability of its activity in the French market,” the company said.

EasyJet also noted that it is still forecasting capacity growth of more than five percent this winter.

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Revealed: The ’15-minute rule’ on French trains

A recent update to SNCF Voyageurs' general terms and conditions of sale requires passengers to take their seats within 15 minutes of departure, or risk losing it.

Published: 18 September 2024 16:21 CEST
Revealed: The '15-minute rule' on French trains

“Failure to claim a reserved seat within 15 minutes of the train’s departure from the station indicated on the ticket may result in the loss of the reserved seat and, more generally, of any seat,” reads a September update of the general terms and conditions of sale.

Consumer watchdog UFC Que Choisir spotted the update to SNCF’s T&Cs earlier this month. 

Its meaning is clear. If your seat is left vacant during this period – for example if you have decided to head for a coffee in the buffet car before finding your seat – it can potentially be reallocated to another passenger.

But, it turns out, it’s all a bit of a storm in a teacup. The intention, according to SNCF Voyageurs, is not to catch out unwitting customers. It told BFM TV that it was intended to “facilitate the repositioning of customers on board in the event of a passenger’s absence”.

And it has its origins in a 2021 European regulation that allows passengers travelling without a reserved seat to claim one if it is free, or considered to be free.

In truth, not many passengers board TGVs without a reserved seat – when you book your ticket you are usually allocated a number ticket. When booking online you can select whether you want to be upstairs or downstairs, in a window or aisle seat or choose to request a seat next to a friend. If you are travelling in first class you can select the precise seat you would like.

But it can happen – for example, if a traveller has missed a connection, they will be invited to board the next train in that case will not have a reserved seat. Likewise if a train has been cancelled, passengers will usually be invited to take the next one.

Equally, the vast majority of TGV users find their seats as a matter of priority, rather than heading immediately for the buffet car. Furthermore, SNCF Voyageurs said that the rule has been in place for some time, and that staff on the train would seek to find a solution in cases of conflict. 

“No new instructions have been given to train managers, and the inclusion of this practice in the T&Cs is for information purposes only.”

The rule applies only to the high-speed TGV trains – both InOui and the budget OuiGo lines – but not the InterCité or local TER lines. On TER trains seats are usually not reserved so are allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis (or possibly on a ‘standing in the corridor’ basis if you are on an especially busy train).

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