UK-based airline Easyjet said it will invest €600 million to create two new bases in France by 2011 at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport and Lyon-Saint-Exupéry airport.
The airline will initially base five additional aircraft in France - three in Paris and two in Lyon - operating a total of 13 routes.
The opening of the Charles de Gaulle base will enable Easyjet to open six more domestic and international routes to Biarritz, Oporto, Venice, Marrakech, Hamburg and Krakow, the carrier said.
Easyjet's new base at Lyon's Saint-Exupéry Airport will operate seven domestic and international routes to Bordeaux, Toulouse, Casablanca, Marrakech, Venice, Porto and Lisbon.
The carrier said it expects passenger traffic from France to rise from eight million passengers in 2008 to 12 million in 2011, by which time it will have 80 routes in and out of France.