The decision fell like lightning on the Breton tip. Air France, long-time manager of the route linking Brest Bretagne airport and Paris-Orly (1.2 million passengers per year before Covid – now around 800,000 passengers), decided: from October 30: Brest Orly, it’s over. In question ? The company points the finger at the lack of profitability of the line, which would experience an occupancy rate of its flights of less than 30%. Except that since July 2020, Air France had sold this route to one of its subsidiaries, Transavia, and therefore swapped its classic planes, CRJ 1000s with 100 seats, for Boeing 737-800s with 186 seats and by lowering the rotations drastically.
But now, the actors of the Breton economic and political worlds, very concerned by this line, which is of crucial importance for the region, do not appreciate the method, considered “contemptuous” and “brutal”. Thirty of them gathered in Brest (Finistère), this Thursday morning, to discuss a possible way forward. “Four rotations per week with timetables that are no longer at all adapted… We’re not going to lie to each other, there is a deliberate desire by Air France to sacrifice this route”, says Claude Ravalec, brand new president of the CCIMBO (Chamber of Commerce et d’industrie métropolitaine Bretagne ouest), In March, we had already sent a letter to Air France, not understanding the meaning of this strategy, to try to get answers, on the one hand, and to find appropriate solutions to remedy to that. We never heard back. Today, they even claim never to have received this letter”.
For the president of the CCI of the Breton tip, it is not a simple toy or a coquetry: “It is a real challenge to preserve this accessibility in the territory. And the representative added: “From Brest, by TGV, we don’t make the round trip during the day (despite the recent LGV section between Rennes and Paris, we are on average 4 hours by train to connect Brest to the capital). We have been fighting for 20 years to develop the LGV, and even if we have gained a little time, the problem is still there. »
“We are locked up in our territory! »
For Jean-Christophe Cagnard, CEO of Asten, a national IT group based in Brest with 130 employees, the Brest Orly line is essential. “We are locked up in our territory! Even if the Covid has effectively reduced the number of passengers and we use a lot more remote solutions for meetings, physical appointments are sometimes mandatory and decisive. (…) Before, we could leave very early in the morning and return by plane at 9:30 p.m., which allowed us to make up to four decisive appointments during the day – very productive, in fact. The ticket was expensive, but very convenient.”
Decision-makers and economic heavyweights agree: “The south and west of Paris are where the big companies and digital players are. In western Brittany, local industrialists, from civil electronics to Defense via Telecom… habits on this line are “already well anchored”. The possibility of developing a regional line, with state support, was mentioned. Two local companies, Chalair, in Quimper, and Céleste, in Morlaix, would even have positioned themselves.
Jean-Charles Larsonneur, deputy for the 2nd constituency of Finistère (Brest), spoke on the subject, this Thursday noon, at the end of the extraordinary meeting of this Thursday. “We are aware that Air France’s objective is to bring everything back to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), in order to favor a more tourist clientele. We have also known for years that they are largely in the red on their regional lines (200 million euros). However, we expect from Air France, with the support of the Ministry of Transport, that the Brest-Orly line be maintained beyond October 30, and that we can, in the long term, help us by helping us to set up a regional company, in order to make up for their absence”.
Who to succeed Air France?
The young MP will obviously have been heard. Contacted by The Parisian, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune confirmed to us, at the very beginning of the afternoon, that Air France will have to extend the Brest Orly line by six additional months. Just to reflect, no doubt, on another solution, this time permanent. Air France affirms this Thursday afternoon in a press release that “discussions have already begun, in coordination with the State and local authorities” to find a new operator for this line.