Nice airport has been flirting with the 10 million passenger mark for several years now, and came close to achieving this target last year. Why such modest growth?
Hervé de Place - With 9.95 million passengers, we have set a new record for passenger numbers, even if our growth is more modest with an increase of 2 %. We have certainly reached a certain level of maturity, but there are specific French features that explain the slow growth in our traffic over the last few years. We have fallen victim to the restructuring of French air transport with the disappearance of AOM, Air Liberté and above all Air Littoral, which represented a large share of the market with its hub in Southern Europe. We estimate that we have lost a potential 800,000 passengers. The driving force behind our future growth will be the development of our international rather than domestic network.
So what are Nice's strengths in terms of network development?
H. de P. - Our international business continues to gain market share and currently accounts for 57 % of our passenger traffic. We have an excellent European network and are the only airline in the region to have an intercontinental network with routes to the United States and the Middle East. We would like to have more routes to Southern Europe - in particular to Spain and Italy - as well as to Central Europe. On the intercontinental front, we are working on increasing the number of flights to Dubai, currently three a week, and would like to have a direct service to the Far East, particularly China, within the next five years.
What are the expansion plans?
H. de P. - We have a total capacity of 13 million passengers, with the possibility of increasing this to 16 million passengers a year on our two runways. Our development plan represents an investment of 500 million euros between now and 2014 and includes the development of a heliport area, the construction of an international business centre on the airport site, the creation of an area for car rental companies and the expansion of our two terminals, in particular terminal 1. There is also a project for a multimodal centre that would include a railway station or possibly a second tramway line.
