The French airport of Nîmes will get it's "home carrier" called Eurociel.
The company will start with one 737-400 aircraft in 2008 ,linking the southern capital to Tangiers,Oujda(Marocco ),Algiers and Oran (Algeria ),Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca,Amsterdam and Sevilla.
prices are very reasonable and start at 68 €/one way flight excluding taxes.(but will never exeed 100 € )
Tickets will be sold over Internet but also through agents. The flights will include meal-services !!
Euroceil is a joint venture between Véolia,the airport operator and a local travel-office Euromer,spezialised in ferry-business from France to Maghreb countries and Spain.
Great news for Nîmes and the Lnaguedoc !!!

Good luck ot the newcomer!

Still, I wonder how long it'll take before Air France drives them out of business/buys them...

I already see the success of linking Nimes-Arles-Camargue to Tunisia... à l'exemple de Transavia à partir d'Orly.

Très bonne nouvelle...

Nimes capital of the South   , why not also speaking of Colmar as capital of the East ...

Tunis is still relatively protected by local politics - and there are not so many Tunisians in the Camargue area but more in Beziers .
Air France will not drive the company out of nowhere,since AF never really was interested in Nîmes.AF try to maximise their feeder flights into Paris (see Montpellier ,who don't have any other flights than Paris,Nantes ..and Lyon )
It's about time sombody realizes it does not make sens to fly first one hour north and than connect to a flight back South ...
I'm delighted things start to change here in the South - you wonder what Montpellier has ben doing all those years after the collaps of Air Littoral !

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): The company will start with one 737-400 aircraft in 2008

Any details on the source for the a/c?

I assume it will be initially an ACMI lease ..
The airline (Eurociel ) will be the operator of the flights taking the financial risk (backed by Véolia..) but at this stage I don"t have knowledge of the actual ACMI aircraft provider

Beaucaire:
see Montpellier ,who don't have any other flights than Paris,Nantes ..and Lyon

Beaucaire, are you just refering to AF flights, because MPL is served year-round by BA and FR in addition to the AF flights? On a seasonal basis, MPL gets regular flights from AH, AT, Norwegian and Sterling.

This is great news however. Where did you see this information?

http://www.midilibre.com/ecov2/article.php?num=1179851595

I know about the seasonal flights to MPL - but as mentioned- they are seasonal !
As a previous heavy user of MPL working in Southern Europe,I had to drive either to Marseille or fly up to Paris to catch flights to Lisbon,Madrid,Rome ,Athens or Tunis .This is ridicoulous for a city of the size of Montpellier ,situated on the shores of the mediterranean sea,and not having basic regular services to neither Italy,Spain,the Netherlands,Belgium,Portugal,Sitzerland or Morocco (the RAM flights to Casablanca are in the summer only )
The admin of MPL have a "directeur developement lignes" who must have fallen asleep some time ago ...

I think a low-fare service out of Nimes could rafle some passengers from Montpellier, especially when destination is the Maghreb !!!

The concept of Eurociel is somewhat different than say Ryanair..
You get a real meal onboard (included in the price ) and tarifs start at 68€/excluding taxes per flight.(a litle bit like Air Berlin )
max. price will be 100 € for flights to Algeria.
Ryanair has no base in Nîmes and most likely will nerver have, since MRS is just 50 minutes away.
But the catchment area of Nimes is quite interesting,since you cover also the Luberon,Arles,Avignon and Montpellier.

Toulon-Hyéres too has potential with services to north Africa, Lille aussi, Grenoble ou St-Etienne.

You can expect Ryanair to jump on some of those opportunities,now that the "cièl ouvert" between EEC and Morocco has been approved.But Algeria and Tunisia are somewhat reluctant to open their airspace - which might change in the future.
But one of the biggest markts for Nîmes is Benelux,since many dutch and belgians come to the South of France (but try to avoid the much more expensive Côte d'Azur )
I forgot to mention that the cities of Rabat,Fez and Marrakech will also be served by Eurociel..
Which would make out of Nîmes a major gateway to Mococco.

[Edited 2007-05-23 13:33:10]