The budget airline Ryanair has announced that it is cutting flights to Dordogne's Bergerac airport and Brive - albeit only the winter schedules are affected.
This comes after Ryanair pulled out entirely from Bordeaux airport, and fellow budget airline easyJet halved its flight offering in Toulouse.
While Bordeaux has been working to add new flight routes to make up from the Ryanair loss, airport bosses estimate it could take two years to fully recover.
As such, flight options to the south-west might feel more precarious, but luckily there are several other options for travelling to this part of France.
Other airlines
The good news is that Ryanair and easyJet are far from the only airlines to service Bordeaux and Toulouse airports.
British Airways, easyJet, and Aer Lingus fly to British and Irish destinations from Bordeaux, while airlines from Aegean Airlines to Vueling fly to destinations across Europe, to north Africa, Turkey, and even to Canada. You can see the list on the airport website.
Meanwhile, in addition to easyJet, the following airlines serve Toulouse-Blagnac airport: Aer Lingus, Air Algérie, Air Arabia, Air Canada, Air Corsica, Air France, Air Transat, APG Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Nouvelair, Royal Air Maroc, Ryanair, Tap Air Portugal, Transavia, Tunisair, Turkish Airlines, Twin Jet and Volotea.
You can see the list on the airport website.
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Other airports
If it is no longer possible to fly into Toulouse or Bordeaux, you might consider a different airport - the south-west is well served with airports, with even quite small towns having one.
British and Irish passengers could fly instead in and out of La Rochelle, which serves Bristol, Gatwick, Cork, Dublin and Stansted for part of the year. For passengers from other European countries, there are flights from Brussels, Geneva and Porto.
While Nantes airport might be too far for the rest of the south-west, it could also be an option if you are visiting La Vendée. From the UK, there are flights via Bournemouth, Edinburgh, London (both Stansted and Gatwick), and more.
For people coming from other European destinations, there are flights from Berlin, Munich, Brussels, Copenhagen and more. You can also fly from Canada (Montréal).
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Limoges airport offers flights to Bristol, East Midlands, Leeds-Bradford, Manchester and Stansted for UK passengers. You can also fly there from Marrakech and Lyon.
Poitiers airport offers several destinations including London, Endinburgh and Barcelona.
Bergerac Dordgone Périgord airport still has an extensive summer schedule - it offers flights to Bristol, Bournemouth, East Midlands, Edinburgh, London, Liverpool, Leeds-Bradford, Southampton, and Stansted airports.
There is also a new British Airways flight between London Stansted and Bergerac Dordogne Périgord airport which started in June 2025.
Meanwhile, the slightly more distant Biarritz airport serves London, Edinburgh and Dublin, which also has flights to places like Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfurt, Stockholm and more.
Trains
Bordeaux and Toulouse are both on France’s TGV rail network. It’s between two hours and six minutes and three-and-a-half hours from Paris to Bordeaux, depending on which train you catch, and four-and-a-half hours to Toulouse.
With London and Paris also a little over two hours apart by Eurostar, rail travel between the UK and southwest France is a genuine possibility – and rail aficionados will tell you it’s a very pleasant way to travel.
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One problem may be getting from Gare du Nord – where the Eurostar stops – to Gare Montparnasse, on the other side of the Seine, from where the TGV to Bordeaux leaves. The journey between the two is about 30 minutes on the Metro, slightly longer by taxi, depending on the time of day. A taxi ride between the two will cost you in the region of €25.
… and automobiles
Le Shuttle – the new name for Eurotunnel – offers numerous daily services between Folkestone and Calais, which would necessitate a near nine-hour drive from the French port to Bordeaux, assuming you are travelling from the UK. But there are worse ways to spend your time than driving through the French countryside…
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Ferries
A more leisurely journey could see you take the ferry from the UK or Ireland to – for example – the Brittany port of Roscoff, and then drive seven hours to Bordeaux. It’s about five hours to Saint-Malo, for UK-based travellers who prefer to take the ferry there.
The Spanish ports of Bilbao or Santander are other possible options from either UK or Irish ports.
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