Air Transport

Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling will next spring open a base at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in France.

The new base will be Vueling's first outside Spain since finalising its merger with Clickair last summer. The original Vueling briefly had a base at Paris Charles de Gaulle, which it later closed to focus on the Spanish market.

Vueling will base one aircraft at Toulouse from April 2011 and will operate flights to the following seven destinations: Amsterdam; Barcelona; Ibiza; Malaga; Paris; Pisa and Venice.

The carrier will invest €30 million ($41.8 million) over the next three years in its Toulouse base. It will offer 200,000 seats for sale from the French city in the summer season of 2011.

Vueling says the new base represents a "significant milestone" in its growth plan as it "commences the path of opening new bases outside of Spain".