Which French regional airports are faring well - and which are not
Most have seen a significant decline since the Covid-19 pandemic
Regional airports rely heavily on low-cost airlines
Markus Mainka /Peter Moulton /Dawid K Photography / bellena / Shutterstock
Most of France’s larger airports, with a million or more passengers, have fewer customers than pre-Covid, with notable exceptions including Orly (up 4%), Marseille Provence (10%) and Paris Beauvais (65%).
Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) is down 7.7%, partly linked to new air traffic control rules, difficulties re-establishing certain long-haul destinations, and a reduction in domestic flights.
Regional airports seeing an increase in passengers compared to 2019 include La Rochelle (26.2%), Tarbes (23.8%), Perpignan (11.9%), Nîmes (12.1%) and Calvi (18.9%).
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The Brittany region (-37.7%) is struggling the most, followed by Normandy (-17.13%). They both rely on domestic traffic – 74.3% and 77.6% of passengers respectively, compared to 21% for airports on average.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine (-15.9%) is next, while the region doing best is Hauts-de-France (+35.2%).
There is a stark difference between medium-sized regional airports with one to five million passengers, the best-performing category, which are up 9.7%, compared to ‘local’ airports, which are doing worst, down 18.6%.
Low-cost flights now represent more than half of passengers in all airports apart from in Paris, though the number at Orly has increased.
There are 18 airports where 70% or more of traffic is low-cost, including 12 where it is more than 90%, eg. Carcassonne, 99.9%; Béziers, 99.6%; Nîmes, 99.4%; Poitiers, 98.8%; La Rochelle, 98.1%).
Domestic traffic passengers have dropped by a quarter since 2019.
Marseille airport is among those that have made notable investments in recent years.
It is described as “very modern” after investment from the state, as well as from private firms working at the airport.
A new, improved terminal one has opened. It has also focused its security checks into a ‘central hub’ to improve efficiency and reduce costs, which several airports are looking to do.
