Ryanair to close Marseille base

Four aircrafts, 13 routes and 200 jobs will be transferred to competitor airports in Spain, Italy and Lithuania. A disagreement arose where French authorities were requesting employees based at the Marseille base to pay income tax and social insurance in France. However Ryanair claim that, according to EU law, these are mobile workers operating on Irish registered aircraft (deemed as Irish territory) making them employees of Ireland, where they pay income tax and social insurance. 

Routes that will remain open include Brussels, Dusseldorf, Fez, London, Madrid, Malta, Porto, Rome, Seville and Valencia.

Routes that are being closed include Agadir, Brest, Eindhoven, Lille, Marrakesh, Nador, Nantes, Palermo, Paris, Tangier, Tenerife, Tours and Venice.

Michael O’Leary of Ryanair said “We are very disappointed at this decision by the French authorities to initiate proceedings against Ryanair’s base in Marseille, which complies fully with EU regulations for mobile transport workers. These are not French jobs, but rather Irish jobs on Irish aircraft, which are defined by EU regulations as Irish territory. All of these people pay their tax and social insurance, in accordance with EU regulations, in Ireland and they remain fully tax compliant.

“Ryanair remains committed to Marseille Airport and in particular to its low cost MP2 Terminal. Ryanair will now be working with the management of Marseille Airport to try to grow other routes and traffic on aircraft, which are based overseas, particularly as Ryanair opens up bases elsewhere in Europe. Sadly the loser in all of this will be Marseille Airport, tourism and jobs in the Provence region.”