Ryanair boss: 'We will reduce flights in France in 2025'

"We will reduce our regional capacity in France this year by four or five percent," Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said on the sidelines of a meeting for the EU airline association, Airlines for Europe (A4E), in Brussels on Thursday.

According to reporting by AFP, the head of the low-cost Irish carrier also clarified that the company would not be pulling out of half of France's regional airports - as he had previously threatened.

"No, no, no. We will still fly to France, but simply with lower capacity," he told reporters.

He did not provide any deals of which flights or airports would be impacted if the 4-5 percent cut goes ahead.

O'Leary also called France an "uncompetitive market", blaming the country's €7.40 'eco tax' on plane tickets.

Ryanair has already said that it will pull out of the small airport of Vatry, in France's Marne département, blaming the 'eco tax' increase, which is part of France's 2025 Budget.

It is unclear how much this would count toward the four to five percent decrease in services, as the airport only ran two Ryanair flights (to and from Porto and Marrakech).

READ MORE: What happened to Ryanair's threats to pull out of France over 'eco tax'?

The new rate of eco tax, also known as the taxe sur les billets d'avion (TSBA) came into effect on March 1st and increased the basic rate of the tax on plane tickets from €2.63 to €7.40.

The Union of French Airports (Union des aéroports français, UAF) recently warned that Beauvais, Béziers, and Nîmes are among other French airports where low-cost airlines account for over 99 percent of their business, and thus could be at risk from closures. 

In 2024 Ryanair also pulled out of Bordeaux airport in a separate dispute over airport fees.