EASYJET IS TO establish yet another base - its 20th - this time at Lyon Saint-Exupery Airport.
The airline's chief executive Andy Harrison says the move into France's second city is part of a €600 million investment over a four-year-period.
Initially basing just two Airbus A319s at Lyon, the plan is to increase easyJet's France-based fleet from the current six aircraft to 20.
EasyJet is already France's second-largest airline, with an estimated six per cent share of the country's air travel market, and Harrison expects to see his French passenger numbers double to 12 million a year by 2011.