SIMON CALDER

Do you have any information on the route from Stansted to Toulon with Ryanair? It’s still on its list of routes but no flights have been posted and the airline seems coy about giving any information out. Fiona Briggs

OF all the airports along the French Mediterranean shore, Toulon is my favourite. Like Nice, it is right on the coast but it is far smaller and more manageable. It is also some distance from Toulon (a naval base and nothing to write home about) but within walking distance of the lovely town of Hyères. From here you can get a ferry across to the unspoilt bliss of the island of Port-Cros, which has national park status.

Ryanair has served Toulon from Stansted for the past 10 summers or so but the airline tells me the route has been dropped “due to a lack of aircraft capacity”. What that actually means is that the airline believes it can make more money on other routes, such as its two new French routes from Stansted to Deauville and, from July, Clermont-Ferrand.

Ryanair hints that Toulon may return to the network, saying: “Our aircraft capacity will increase over the next four years.”

Meanwhile, Flybe has stepped in with a four-times-a-week service from Bournemouth to Toulon. The propellor-aircraft flights are slower (2h30m) than Ryanair’s jets, and cabin space is more restricted, but the fares are good at only £90 return in June.

Whether you choose this link depends on how awkward the journey to Bournemouth is, compared with the extra distance you would need to travel in France from Nice or Marseille — the alternatives to the east and west of Toulon respectively. The schedule is also relevant. The days that Flybe serves Toulon may not suit your plans. By way of comparison, today you can fly to Nice from any of London’s five airports, with BA and easyJet, between them offering 18 departures each way.