This is certainly no coincidence. After the Paris airports, the two largest French airports in terms of passenger traffic are located in the south of France. Nice returned to its pre-covid level in 2024flirting with the 15 million passengers. The Côte d'Azur hub grew by 3.5% last year, i.e. 14.8 million passengers compared with 14.3 million in 2023.
As for MarseilleLast year, it consolidated its position as 2th French regional airport with 11.2 million passengers by 2024 (+ 3.4 % vs 2023).
Above pre-Covid figures
Both airports are now above the figures for 2019, the last year before the covid epidemic. Marseille's traffic will be 9.8% higher than in 2019, Nice of 1.9%. This is more than the French average. If we consider all passenger traffic in mainland France, 2024 is still 0.7% lower than 2019. A higher aircraft load factor led to a 0.9% drop in the number of aircraft movements at Nice. Marseille recorded a very slight increase of 0.3%.
Growth driven by international traffic to both Marseille and Nice. Both Marseille and Nice are connected to more than 120 destinations each. The Provence hub, for example, has benefited from new routes to Shanghai, Stockholm and Wroclaw.
Nice, for its part, recorded a record number of long-haul destinations. Last year, the leading airport in the French Mediterranean was linked by five routes to the United States, two to Canada and six to the Gulf States. For the time being, 2025 is looking bright for both hubs...
