Air traffic in France continues to improve according to the latest DGAC statistics for the January-August period. In August, the number of passengers in mainland France represented 87.5% of its 2019 traffic level and 77.1% cumulatively since January.. This translates into 94 million passengers. This rate has been steadily improving since January 2022, when traffic represented only 50.1% of that in 2019.
Soaring traffic volumes to Africa
If we go into the details of the analysis over the eight months to 2022, it is Africa with the highest rate of recovery. At the end of August, the number of passengers (10.61 million) represented 80,4% of traffic over the same period in 2019.
In August, this rate was even close to breakeven at 98.8%. It is likely that this rate will be higher than 100% in September compared with 2019. This remarkable performance is due to the strong recovery towards North Africa. By the end of August, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia had seen more than 7.6 million passengers. The announcement of new capacity on theAlgeria this winter by Air France, Transavia, Volotea and Vueling should further boost this traffic.
However, the European Union remains the main growth segment for international traffic.. By the end of August, France had recorded a cumulative total of 38.94 million passengers travelling to its 26 EU partners. This represents an 8-month recovery rate of 82,1% compared with 2019. In August, this rate reached 92.1%.
Recovery in traffic to Germany and the UK lags behind
Cumulatively, if theSpain reached at the end of August 90% of its 2019 level, l'Germany still lagging behind with a recovery rate of 60%. This situation is due to the dependence on business trafficwhich has continued to decline since the start of the year. There has also been a significant drop in frequencies between France and Germany. The schedule of Eurowings, Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary, remains anaemic. Air France still lacks a number of routes to major cities such as Bremen and Leipzig. And routes such as Lyon-Stuttgart have disappeared altogether...
Outside the EU, Turkey shows the strongest growth. At the end of August, passenger traffic from France had once again surpassed its 2019 level, at a rate of 103,9%. In August, the catch-up rate was even 107.9%.
By contrast, the other major non-EU destination, the United Kingdom, suffers from the same syndrome as Germany. The slow recovery in business traffic, added to the still visible consequences of Brexit on the UK, is weighing on traffic. At the end of August, traffic reached only 64,6% its 2019 level.
Asia still the big loser in the recovery
At the intercontinental, At the end of August, passenger traffic in the Americas stood at 77.9%, with 8.24 million passengers.. The United States generated 4,82 million passengers (75.6% recovery rate). But this is Canada with the best recovery rate to 81.6%.
On the other hand, the traffic with Asia (including the Middle East) remains sluggish. Admittedly, it recovered to 58.8% in August alone. But on a cumulative basis it represents only 47.4% of the total passenger traffic for 2019 between January and August. This rate will improve in the coming months with the recent reopenings of Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. as well as the ramp-up of frequencies in Vietnam.
The effect of business traffic at CDG, Lyon and Toulouse
In domestic transport and the French overseas departments and territories, the recovery is noticeable. On domestic routes, passenger traffic at the end of August reached 77.1% of its 2019 level and even 87.5% in August. That's 14 million passengers. In the French overseas departments and territories, the rate remains lower at 51.9% in cumulative terms over the first 8 months of 2022.. However, the Paris-La Réunion route stands out, with passenger traffic surpassing that of 2019 (107.3%).
And finally.., figures provided by the DGAC for airports confirm that they are still leisure travel, which generates most of the traffic. Beauvais, Marseille and Orly have the best recovery ratesThese were 110.9%, 86.4% and 85.5% respectively.
On the other hand, Lyon, Toulouse and Paris CDG bring up the rearThese three platforms are more dependent on business traffic. The cumulative recovery rate at the end of August was 69.2%, 70.7% and 71.9% respectively. At Paris-Charles de Gaulle, transfer traffic to the Air France hub remains almost 3 points lower than at Paris-Charles de Gaulle. than in 2019. According to Aéroports de Paris, the cumulative figure was 20.31TP3Q. This represents almost 500,000 fewer connecting passengers over the first eight months.
