Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair delivered an unexpected Christmas present to the Centre-Val-de-Loire region on 26 December when it confirmed that Tours-Val de Loire airport will remain on its French network through at least October 2026.
Airport director Cyril Godeaux called the announcement “a relief” after months of uncertainty triggered by a new French ‘solidarity tax’ on airline tickets. Ryanair has already axed 25 routes elsewhere in France and closed three regional bases for the 2025/26 winter season.
Under the revised schedule Tours will keep two weekly flights to Marrakech all year, six-day-a-week summer services to Marseille and—subject to final slot approval—Porto from spring 2026. Connections to London, Dublin and Charleroi remain suspended after the winter cull, and local officials admit that “some frequency erosion” cannot be ruled out if the tax is raised again in the 2026 budget.
![Ryanair will keep flying from Tours-Val de Loire despite nationwide route cuts]()
Business travellers juggling paperwork for Morocco, Portugal or wider Schengen movements might note that VisaHQ can smooth the process; its France portal (https://www.visahq.com/france/) consolidates current requirements and offers rapid, door-to-door visa handling for individual flyers or entire corporate teams.
For corporate mobility managers the decision preserves a useful low-cost gateway for technicians and project teams shuttling between central France, southern Morocco’s mining sector and the expanding Provence technology corridor. The airport handled just 202,000 passengers in 2024; losing Ryanair would have cut that figure by two-thirds and forced travellers onto slower rail or road links to Paris-Orly.
Regional chambers of commerce are now lobbying the government to exempt “thin” provincial routes from further eco-levies, arguing that they play an outsized role in decentralising foreign direct investment and high-value tourism.
Airport director Cyril Godeaux called the announcement “a relief” after months of uncertainty triggered by a new French ‘solidarity tax’ on airline tickets. Ryanair has already axed 25 routes elsewhere in France and closed three regional bases for the 2025/26 winter season.
Under the revised schedule Tours will keep two weekly flights to Marrakech all year, six-day-a-week summer services to Marseille and—subject to final slot approval—Porto from spring 2026. Connections to London, Dublin and Charleroi remain suspended after the winter cull, and local officials admit that “some frequency erosion” cannot be ruled out if the tax is raised again in the 2026 budget.
Business travellers juggling paperwork for Morocco, Portugal or wider Schengen movements might note that VisaHQ can smooth the process; its France portal (https://www.visahq.com/france/) consolidates current requirements and offers rapid, door-to-door visa handling for individual flyers or entire corporate teams.
For corporate mobility managers the decision preserves a useful low-cost gateway for technicians and project teams shuttling between central France, southern Morocco’s mining sector and the expanding Provence technology corridor. The airport handled just 202,000 passengers in 2024; losing Ryanair would have cut that figure by two-thirds and forced travellers onto slower rail or road links to Paris-Orly.
Regional chambers of commerce are now lobbying the government to exempt “thin” provincial routes from further eco-levies, arguing that they play an outsized role in decentralising foreign direct investment and high-value tourism.
