Air France (AF, Paris CDG) will close its Toulouse Blagnac, Marseilles, and Nice domestic bases by October of this year the Agence France-Presse (AFP) newswire has reported quoting internal airline documents.

Two hundred of the pilots that will be affected by the closure will be transferred to Paris without any impact on their jobs.

The closure will make way for the expansion of Air France's budget-oriented HOP! (France) (A5, Paris CDG) subsidiary into the local and regional market through its HOP!-Airlinair (Paris Orly), HOP!-Brit Air (Morlaix), and HOP!-Régional (Clermont-Ferrand) affiliates.

As part of Air France's strategy to win back its share of the domestic market lost to the likes of high-speed rail and Low Cost Carriers, HOP! will also take over the operation of all of Air France's domestic and regional services from its Paris Orly hub including its La Navette flights to Bordeaux Mérignac, Marseilles, Nice, and Toulouse Blagnac.

Air France still operates mainline services from Marseilles to Amsterdam Schiphol, Biarritz, Bordeaux Mérignac, Brest Bretagne, Lille Lesquin, Nantes and Rennes, from Nice to Lille, Lyon St. Exupéry, Nantes and Strasbourg Enzheim as well as from Toulouse to Lyon and Strasbourg.