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STUDYING IN FRANCE

France reopens visas to students and researchers from India after three-month suspension

Students and researchers from India can once again apply for visas to France after a three-month suspension of applications due to the pandemic.

France reopens visas to students and researchers from India after three-month suspension
Passengers from red-zone countries register for Covid tests upon arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport. Photo: Ian LANGSDON / POOL / AFP.

The Local has spoken to many Indian students and researchers stuck in limbo, with jobs or study courses lined up in France but unable to apply for a visa since the suspension began on April 27th.

However on Friday, France’s ambassador to India announce that applications were now open for student, researcher or ‘talent passport’ visas.

The French government has also loosened restrictions on arrivals from red list countries, including Indian, for fully-vaccinated people.

Fully vaccinated travellers no longer have to provide an ‘essential reason’ for travel, although they do still need a negative Covid test and to quarantine on arrival.

At the same time, it was announced that France would begin accepting the Covishield vaccine, the version of the AstraZenica jab which is manufactured in India and widely administered in India and Africa, for travel purposes.

“Some of us may have regrets”

Aviral*, from India, was one of many left in limbo by the suspension of visa applications.

He was due to begin a Phd research programme in Toulouse in May, but was unable to travel, and says the anxiety of not knowing what will happen has taken a toll on his mental health.

“We rejected other opportunities in order to study in France,” he said. “Some of us may have regrets about this choice.”

Those with funded research programmes risk losing out on income.

“Many of us have to support our families, and many of the post-docs even have children and spouses to support so it’s very difficult for us if we’re not being paid because we’re not accepted by the universities unless we go there physically,” said Priyanka, from Mumbai, who is expected in Paris in late August to begin studying for a PhD at Sorbonne university.

A health worker prepares to inject a student with a dose of the Covishield vaccine in Amritsar. Photo: NARINDER NANU / AFP.

“I really do feel that India is being treated unfairly compared to the other European countries,” John*, who is due to move to France from Chennai in August to begin a PhD in geology, told The Local.

“I understand we had a really bad second wave of Covid in April, and it made sense for them to impose a travel ban in India, but right now the situation is much better.”

In India, there are currently 24 confirmed daily cases of Covid per million inhabitants, compared to 117 in France, and 665 in the UK, according to figures from Our World in Data.

France’s traffic light classification system lists red zone countries as areas where the virus is actively circulating and variants are a concern. Since the delta variant first identified in India is now widespread in France, the researchers who shared their concerns with The Local said they thought India was still suffering from bad publicity dating back to the peak of the second wave earlier this year.

“If people from the UK can come, people from India should be able to come,” added Sam*, originally from Kolkata. Sam was able to travel to France in February, before the travel ban, but his wife had to give her notice period before joining him, and is now unable to enter the country.

Above all, those affected want France to acknowledge the importance of education and research. “We are all coming here to work, we aren’t coming to see the Eiffel Tower,” Sam said.

John added: “Research and education should be considered essential travel.”

“In a way, we’ve already lost out,” Savio, from New Delhi, told The Local.

Savio is due to begin his MBA at the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau in September, but he has already had to miss an intensive language class this summer since he was not allowed to travel.

Pranav is supposed to be joining Savio in Fontainebleau, and he admits to feeling powerless.

“We have been working towards this for years,” he said. “There have been multiple hurdles we’ve already cleared, and to have something stopping us from clearing the last hurdle, and to see that you come from a certain country which is why you don’t qualify, is mind-numbing.”

READ ALSO France to require 24-hour test for UK and some EU countries over delta variant fears

Those studying at INSEAD have already handed over a €15,000 deposit towards their tuition fees, and they already have housing lined up for August, explained Mahika, a student from India. “We didn’t have the option of not taking up housing, because even to apply for the French visa we had to show housing arrangements for at least three months.”

* Names have been changed.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Are France’s loss-making regional airports under threat?

Just a quarter of France's airports break even financially with the rest - the smaller, regional airports - heavily subsidised by the state. But can this situation continue?

Are France's loss-making regional airports under threat?

France last year welcomed 199 million airline passengers – bringing the country numbers back to almost pre-pandemic levels. 

But it was only a handful of French airports that took in the vast majority of those millions – with Paris’ Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly airports responsible for more than half of the air traffic.

France’s Cour de Comptes counted 73 mainland commercial airports in their 2023 review of the airline sector – but only 15 of those actually break even, the rest rely on subsidies.

Some of these airports are exceedingly small, like Troyes which had just 1,562 passengers in 2023. Others, like Rodez with 31,577 passengers and Castres with 36,454 got a bit more.

Map of airports in France, including both passenger and non-passenger airports (Credit: l’UNION DES AÉROPORTS FRANÇAIS & FRANCOPHONES ASSOCIÉS – UAF & FA)

Limoges was larger, with 264,426 passengers in 2023, but it still paled in comparison to the 10.8 million that passed through the Marseille airport.

The cost of small-to-medium sized airports

The former head of the Air Transport Institute, Jacques Pavaux, authored a 2019 study on public aid to airports, finding that those with less than one million passengers per year are not profitable, noting that only 15 of France’s airports get enough traffic to be profitable.

As for the others, most have been loss-making for years, unable to continue services without significant aid from the state.

“Their chronic deficit has been filled by recurring operating subsidies granted over decades of existence. Almost half of them have never had, and will never have, any chance of reaching the traffic threshold guaranteeing financial balance,” Pavaux wrote. 

The study found that state and local authorities spend around €90 million every year to help keep the small-to-medium sized airports afloat. 

Of the 73 airports listed in the Cour de Comptes report, a little over half (38) counted fewer than 700,000 passengers a year. 

The Cour de Comptes called these “the most economically fragile”, noting that they depend on aid from local authorities to balance operations and carry out the necessary investments.

On top of that, many do not have negotiation options and find themselves competing with neighbouring airports, leaving them forced to take on contracts with low-cost airlines. 

As of 2021, low-cost air traffic represented more than 90 percent of commercial traffic for airports in Dôle, Vatry, Limoges, Bergerac, Nîmes, while it constituted all of the traffic at the Carcassonne, Tours and Béziers airports.

Over-density of airports

Some areas stand out for having a particularly high volume of commercial passenger airports, like Occitanie along the Mediterranean coast in southern France, which is home to nine.

The Cour de Comptes report found that in Occitanie 71.5 percent of regional airport traffic occurred at the Toulouse airport, followed by Montpellier with 14.4 percent.

The other seven – Carcassone, Tarbes, Perpignan, Nîmes, Béziers, Rodez and Castres – combined provided the remaining 14 percent of traffic. 

Valérie Renet, the head of the Occitanie Regional Chamber of Accounts, told France 3 that it is this ‘over-density’ that leads to financial losses, as “operating deficits are covered by public subsidies, that is to say that taxpayers’ money is used to balance the operation of these airports, usually for the benefit of low-cost companies.”

Last year, the airport of Bézers, which is “totally dependent on Ryanair”, received €5.1 million in public money to reach equilibrium, which equates to about €20.69 paid out per passenger, France Bleu reported. 

As for Ryanair, the company benefits from over €30 million in public subsidies – or €16 per passenger – from regional airports in Occitanie alone.

The picture is similar in Brittany, which is home to eight airports, though over 80 percent of traffic is concentrated in Brest, which has a little over one million passengers a year (as of 2018).

The future for small-to-medium sized airports

Building new airports has already become controversial – a proposal for a new airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes near the city of Nantes was the subject of huge protests for years until in 2018 the project was officially abandoned.

But that doesn’t mean that the loss-making existing airports are under threat. 

In terms of what to do with the loss-making airports, Renet focused on the situation in Occitanie. She told France 3 that she was “not advocating for getting rid of the airports. They serve other needs specific to the region, not just commercial flights.”

For example, the Nîmes airport is a national hub for air rescue and civil protection operations, meanwhile ‘pelicandromes’ which are used to fight forest fires, are installed at the Béziers, Carcassone and Perpignan airports. 

Instead, Renet and the Cours de Comptes advocated for streamlining the management of airports to a regional, rather than local level. This would help to avoid overlapping flights – like a Pau-Paris and a Tarbes-Paris that take off around the same time.

The situation may also change in 2027, when the European Commission is due to examine public aid given to airports and whether large subsidies given to airports constitutes unfair competition.

There are also climate concerns, as France moves to invest more train transport to reduce carbon emissions. In 2021, the country passed a law banning domestic air links of less than two hours and 30 minutes when an alternative train option exists.

However, this law has so far only banned three routes: Orly-Bordeaux, Orly-Lyon, and Orly-Nantes.

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