Low-cost airline Ryanair said Wednesday it will close its base in the French city of Marseille because prosecutors refused to drop a case against it for illegal working practices.
"It's a very disappointing day," said Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, who travelled to the Mediterranean city to announce the closure of what has been the firm's Mediterranean hub since 2006, with four aircraft and 200 staff.
He said he was "very disappointed" by the attitude of French prosecutors, who accuse Ryanair of illegal working practices because the Irish airline employed workers in Marseille under Irish contracts to save on payroll taxes.
O'Leary again insisted that because Ryanair's employees in Marseille pay taxes, social security and pension payments in Ireland, they are obeying European Union law.
But the unions who filed the original legal complaint say that employees living in France should be declared in France.
As soon as the prosecutors announced the case against the airline in April, O'Leary made his threat to pull out of the city.
Thirteen routes will shut down if the Marseille base is shut, including flights from the French city to Agadir, Venice and Palermo.
But the airline will continue flights from Marseille to 10 other destinations including Brussels, Seville, Frankfurt and London, O'Leary told reporters.
It is not the first time the company's practices have been challenged in France.
A French court in 2007 dismissed a complaint by Ryanair against a law saying that employees of foreign airlines living in France have to come under French social security and tax law.
Ryanair has taken that case to the European Court of Human Rights.