easyJet has celebrated the opening of its 29th base in Europe, at Nantes Airport.

Nantes is a strategic choice for easyJet seventh base in France as it is both an attractive leisure and business destination with growing inbound and outbound demand.

This base opening is aligned with easyJet strategy of long-term investment in France where one quarter of all its passengers starts or finishes their journey.

Operator of Nantes-Atlantique airport since the signing of the concession contract in 2011, Vinci Airports has successfully rolled-out its inclusive airport development model, in close cooperation with airlines and in particular with easyJet.

The model focuses on the improvement of connectivity in the Nantes region benefitting the north-west territory local communities; transformation of the customer experience and the roll out of a best in class sustainability policy.

Johan Lundgren, easyJet chief executive, and François Bacchetta, easyJet country director France and Italy, were joined by Nicolas Notebaert, chief executive of Vinci Concessions, and François Marie, Nantes-Atlantique airport director, to celebrate the important milestone.

Guests were able to see the landing of an Airbus A320neo, flying from London, with its improved noise and carbon performance that comes with this new generation aircraft.

easyJet also unveiled a Nantes based aircraft with a special livery featuring Nantes’ iconic “Chateau des Ducs” that will help to promote the city across the 27 destinations easyJet flies to in Nantes.

Since easyJet started flying to Nantes with a flight from Geneva in 2008, it has carried 6.5 million passengers to and from the airport.

Lundgren commented: “As we celebrate the launch of this new base in Nantes, we are really proud to continue the airline’s successful expansion in France.

“Over 20 million passengers fly with us to and from France every year: that’s a quarter of all easyJet passengers which shows how important France is to the airline.

“This base opening is another significant milestone in France for easyJet, now counting seven bases across the national territory from today.”