Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) is in talks with the Tunisian government about opening up services there Abdellatif Hamam, the managing director of the National Office of Tunisian Tourism (ONTT), has told France's TourMag magazine.
According to Hamam, the Irish LCC is interested in opening up flights to several Tunisian cities thus allowing it to compete with other European LCCs such as easyJet (London Luton), Vueling Airlines (VY, Barcelona El Prat), TUI fly (Germany) (X3, Hannover), and Transavia France (TO, Paris Orly) that have already secured traffic rights. CEO Michael O'Leary has highlighted Israel, Egypt and other North African countries such as Algeria and Libya as prime markets Ryanair wishes to enter.
For its part, Tunisia is in the midst of negotiations with the European Union over a proposed Open Skies treaty that would mirror a similar agreement signed between the bloc and Morocco in 2006. Like Morocco, which had concerns that unregulated competition would hurt Royal Air Maroc (AT, Casablanca Mohamed V), Tunisia is ambivalent about signing off on any treaty until its national carrier, Tunisair (TU, Tunis), is fully capable of competing with foreign LCCs on a more-or-less equal footing.
Aside from a difficult, politically-sensitive, restructuring programme that saw it reduce its bloated staff overhead by 1,700, Tunisair is also considering setting up its own budget carrier subsidiary in anticipation of Open Skies.
