In 1988 - just over 25 years ago - Nantes airport was handling just one million passengers. It wasn't until 2005 that the number of passengers reached the one million mark. two million passengers. Since then, in the space of a decade, Nantes has increased its traffic by a factor of 2.5. Last year, the Vinci-managed airport recorded almost 4.4 million passengerstraffic up by 5,7% compared with 2014. And 2016 should see a further record established for the Nantes hub, with traffic expected to exceed 4.8 million passengers, an increase of more than 8% compared with 2015.
In fact, Nantes has seen the biggest increase in traffic in France after Lyon (+9.2% over the first eleven months), according to figures from the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC). Between 2011 and 2015, the Western hub saw its passenger traffic jump by 35% compared to 31% at Bordeaux and 16% at Nice.
The momentum in Nantes is mainly due to low-cost which has boosted the network and traffic. Low-cost traffic now accounts for 50% of the airport's traffic, with five main airlines - EasyjetRyanair, TransaviaVolotea and Vueling - who are positioning themselves in this low-cost segment. Their presence has boosted the number of destinations served in Europe. Between 2011 and 2016, Nantes' network on the continent grew from from 25 to 40 destinations. The presence of five low-cost operators and around ten scheduled operators has stimulated competition. Vinci states that 30% of European destinations are served by at least two companies and 60% of French destinations by two operators.
After British Airways and Lufthansa in recent years, Brussels Airlines was the major scheduled airline to launch flights from Nantes in 2016. In all, 2016 saw the launch of twelve new regular routes to 10 destinations. Volotea set up a base in Nantes in 2012 and expanded its network by 17 destinations in the first year, to reach 25 destinations today. The airline plans to launch routes to Cagliari and Vienna for the summer 2017 season.
Lines opened at Nantes Atlantique in 2016:
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Easyjet is the third largest operator in terms of number of routes, with 12 destinations on offer this winter to France, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland. London Luton will open next February. Vueling follows with nine destinations, all in Spain with the exception of one flight to Rome; Ryanair is present on three routes, including Nantes-Marseille.
Le Air France Group has a strong presence at the Nantes hub through its subsidiaries Transavia and HOP! Transavia is the airport's second largest network, with 14 airlines in summer and twelve in winter. It also plays the business travel through the routes offered by its subsidiary HOP!.
Since this winter, HOP! has brought Bombardier CRJ 1000s into service, notably to Marseille and Nice, airports served by three daily flights each. It has also decided to increase frequencies on Düsseldorf and Milan Malpensa. To Düsseldorf, HOP! offers eight weekly frequencies instead of five this summer, and to Milan six flights are operated each week instead of five.
AND NOTRE-DAME-DES-LANDES?
Traffic growth is therefore expected to accelerate further in the coming years. This is an argument put forward by the supporters of the future airport. Notre-Dame-des-Landes. La DGAC claims that the future Nantes airport is necessary because of aircraft noise over the city. In order to comply with the noise tolerance criterion, the number of movements would have to be capped at 56,000 per year, a figure that could be reached in 2023 and that anti-airport campaigners do not find credible. They are talking about a saturation point in 2050.
As for the capacity of the current airport to handle future traffic, the controversy ranges from total saturation of the facilities as early as 2020 for the "pro-NDDL", to a potential extension of the terminal to six and then nine million passengers for the "anti-NDDL". Finally, the number of movements on the single 2900-metre runway tends to speak in favour of the opponents of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes project. The current number of movements on this single runway is around 50,000 per year. At Geneva-Cointrin - an airport that benefits from the same 340-hectare footprint as Nantes Atlantique - the number of aircraft movements is 190,000 a year for passenger traffic of 15 million. So Nantes Atlantique looks set to have a bright future, free from controversy...
