Ryanair today (19 Sept) welcomed the French Supreme Court ruling in the Marseille employment case, which confirmed Ryanair’s position that the E101 certificates issued by Ireland in respect of its pilots and cabin crew who were temporarily based in Marseille are binding on the French Authorities and the French Courts as previously ruled by the ECJ. The French Supreme Court also cancelled all convictions against Ryanair and returned the Case to the Paris Court of Appeal for rehearing.

This French Supreme Court ruling, which follows the ECJ ruling in the A-Rosa case, now obliges the French Authorities to accept and respect the Irish E101 certificates, which were issued to Ryanair’s pilots and cabin crew who were temporarily based in Marseille during the period 2006 – 2010.

Ryanair’s Chief People Officer, Eddie Wilson said:

“We welcome this favourable ruling from the French Supreme Court which fully respects the earlier favourable ECJ ruling in the A-Rosa case.

We believe that this decision will now lead to an early and favourable conclusion of the criminal cases and tax demands in Aix-en-Provence. This should in due course lead to the repayment of up to €13m of social tax payments, which Ryanair was required to put into escrow to cover two such cases in 2014 and 2017.

We welcome this French Supreme Court ruling, which now paves the way for Ryanair to consider re-entering the French market. We are already in discussions with a number of French airports, and the French Ministry of Labour, which we hope will lead to Ryanair announcing some bases in France in the near future, but with pilots and cabin crew based in France, on local French contracts, and paying their social taxes in France rather than Ireland.

We have asked our lawyers to expedite the rehearing of this case by the Paris Court of Appeal now that the French Supreme Court and the ECJ in Strasbourg has ruled in favour of Ryanair and the Irish issued E101 certificates”.