Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) may be compelled to close its base at Bordeaux Mérignac if the airport increases its fees, group CEO Michael O’Leary told the news agency Agence France-Presse in Brussels.

“The airport, I think, wants to double our cost. We're not willing to pay double the cost at Bordeaux,” he said, adding that there is a real risk the base will close at the end of the summer season despite the fact that is “a very successful operation”.

If the closure does take place, it will impact 120 jobs at the airport in southwestern France, which has been a Ryanair base since 2019. In an official statement, France’s national cabin crew union (Syndicat National du Personnel Navigant Commercial - SNPNC) expressed its concern over “the imminent risk of closure of the Ryanair base in Bordeaux” and called on the French authorities to “intervene without delay”.

Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport told AFP it regretted the fact that the budget carrier had communicated the closure warning to its staff without prior dialogue. It also claimed the remark regarding airport fees to be “totally erroneous”.

Ryanair declined to comment on the media reports to ch-aviation, and Bordeaux-Mérignac did not reply to a request for comment.

Ryanair has been flying to Bordeaux since 2009 and currently has three aircraft based there. The airport either negotiates prices via a global price list or individually with companies, a report in the newspaper La Tribune explained. In 2023, it wanted to increase its price-list fees by 10%, but after that jump was rejected by local transport authorities, a rise of 5% from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024 was applied. Regardless, Ryanair is more affected by individual pricing for low-cost carriers at the airport's Billi terminal, where fees are reduced by 30% to aid passenger growth.

ch-aviation capacities shows that Ryanair accounts for almost 30% of the total weekly seat capacity from Bordeaux.

Ryanair frequently protests projected rises in fees at the airports in operates to. Most recently, its efforts to overturn higher fees at Vilnius were rejected by a Lithuanian court.