Marseille welcomes new transatlantic route; gains 2 new airlines in 2026
Marseille has broken all previous traffic records. In 2025, the airport welcomed 11.25 million passengers, which was up marginally compared to the prior high in 2024. Throughput was almost 11% higher than before the pandemic in 2019.
It is regional France’s second-busiest airport. Its development has been assisted by the arrival or return of multiple airlines in the past few years, including flynas in 2022, Austrian in 2023, Korean Air in 2023 (charters), KLM in 2023, Shanghai Airlines in 2024 and Ethiopian Airlines in 2024.
Two more airlines with join Marseille’s portfolio in 2026. On 1 June, ITA Airways will debut from Rome FCO (daily); Alitalia previously served this route. On 22 June, SAS will arrive from Copenhagen (weekly); it last operated to the Marseille in 2019.
Ryanair has 34% of peak-summer seats
Cirium schedule data shows that Marseille with have 4.19 million two-way seats in the critically important Q3 2026 (July-September). A record figure, capacity is up by nearly 2% compared to the previous best third quarter, which was in 2024.
Despite a 1% capacity reduction year-over-year, Ryanair remains by far Marseille’s largest operator. It has 1.43 million round-trip seats in the busiest quarter, for a 34% share of the total. It is the ULCC’s 27th most-served airport out of 223 facilities served in the three months. It ranks second among Ryanair’s French airports.
Ryanair has 57 routes from Marseille in Q3, with the top five routes being Brussels CRL, Nantes, London STN, Palma de Mallorca and Marrakech. Compared to the same period a year ago, flights to Limoges, Paphos, Reggio di Calabria, Rhodes and Zagreb have ended. However, it plans to return to Amman on 1 July 2026 (2-weekly), having last served the Jordanian capital in June 2025.
120+ airports are served
Cirium data highlights that Marseille has non-stop or one-stop flights to 122 airports in the examined three-month period. 84 destinations are in Europe, 30 in Africa (mainly cities in Francophone countries), four in the Middle East, two in Asia and two in North America. 72% of capacity is within Europe.
Compared to Q3 2025, Amman and Quebec City will now be served. The Jordanian capital was mentioned earlier, while Marseille last had flights to Quebec City 13 years ago. On 21 May 2026, Air Transat reintroduced the route (weekly), having last done so in 2013.
The resumption means that Marseille has two North American routes for the first time in 11 years, with Quebec City coexisting with flights to Montreal. In 2025, Montreal and Toronto YYZ were served by Air Transat.
With 267,000 two-way seats, up by 15%, Paris CDG is Marseille’s top market. Due to very fast trains to central Paris, Paris ORY – which is normally the French capital’s main domestic airport – only ranks 28th from Marseille. Air France will have 54-weekly departures to CDG in August, with global connectivity being particularly important.
