I remember BA having bases in MAN and BHX which are now gone.
The base at LGW has seen a massive reduction in staff and wholesale contracting out.
All the flavour of the month for better or worse.
France has been slow to realise the threat and advantages that the so call LoCo model can bring with it.
I agree but that's only part of the picture IMHO.
Another part of the problem is that France has an extremely centralist (planned) concept of the world. It sees Paris as the center of the universe, and thus everything is located in and around Paris. Go to the countryside in France and you'll only find old people, the young will have moved to the city, and even the ones that live in the bigger cities have to move to Paris for the good jobs.
At the same time the French have never been too keen on the concept of free markets and competition, and in their xenophobia they make life very difficult for any foreign airline or a new business concept by a company who wants to set up shop in France. And if it's not bad enough, the monopolistic and overpriced Air France product (offering you the luxurious choice between peanuts/"salé" or something sweet/"sucré"
) makes it IMHO extremely tempting for LoCo's to enter the market.
Now at the other hand look for example at Germany (a country similar in size) and Lufthansa, which over the years has been expanding it's Munich base with long and sort haul services, whilst offering a decent product and thus successfully keeping the market share of LoCo's within limits. Munich has lot's of jobs in the high tech and car industry, and an airport (also served by lot's of foreign airlines!) to support those industries.
Jobs and healthy competition create jobs, but the only thing France can offer outside the Paris region in the cities like Marseille, Rennes, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lille are central planning, banlieues and chômage.
