10.15 million passengers. Passing the 10 million passenger mark is more than a symbol for Marseille Provence Marignane airport. According to the airport's management, 2019 saw some of the strongest traffic growth in a decade, with an increase of 8.1%. This growth is mainly due to strong international development (+11.1 %), which generated 80% of the platform's growth. "It's an excellent trendIt's a good time to be in Marseille," says Philippe Bernand, Chairman of the Management Board of Marseille Provence Marignane Airport. International traffic now accounts for 62% of all passenger movements, with steady growth expected to continue in the future."
Marseille Provence airport has thus climbed to the top of the third place of France's regional airports, behind Nice and Lyon, but now ahead of Toulouse, whose traffic fell slightly in 2019. "We have seen the biggest increase among regional airports handling at least ten million passengers, says Julien Boullay, Sales and Marketing Director.. Not all the airports have yet published their annual results, but growth at Nice was around 4%-4.5%, while at Lyon it was around 7%. Paris traffic grew by 2.9% last year, partly impacted by lower passenger numbers at Orly."
On the network front, Marseille is now perfectly connected to the whole of Europe and the Mediterranean basin, which was his main objective. "There are few "holes" left in our Europe networksays Julien Boullay. But we probably still need to strengthen our position in Scandinavia. We're talking to Finnair, for example, which would be an excellent new arrival at our airport. Hamburg is another of our priorities."By the end of the first half of the year, Yerevan and Sofia will be added to the routes departing from Marseille. Already confirmed for summer 2020 routes to Alghero, Dublin, Chania (Crete) and London Southend with Ryanair, as well as Athens, Castellon (Spain) and Olbia with Volotea.
"On the Mediterranean axis, we were affected by the disappearance of Aigle Azurwhich generated almost 200,000 passengers a year, in particular to Algeriasays the Marketing Director. At the end of the month, the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) is due to decide which airlines are likely to take over Aigle Azur's Marseille-Algeria routes. Five are in the running."In Africa, the arrival last year of Ethiopian Airlines and Air Sénégal reconfirm Marseille's traditional role as a Europe-Africa hub. Including North Africa, Marseille is now linked to more than thirty cities on the continent.
One of the airport's other objectives is to consolidate traffic to major hubs offering global access. In addition to CDG, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Heathrow and Madrid, the airport is particularly pleased with the new route Marseille-Moscow Aeroflot and Marseille-Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Airlines. The first provides connections to parts of Eastern Europe, Northern Europe and Asia, while the second provides connections to some forty cities in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
The airport still wants a line to the Gulf, Qatar Airways seems to be the best positioned to serve the airport because of the open skies agreement between the European Union and Qatar. Similarly, a link to New York would also be welcome, "the new Airbus A321neo LRs are ideal for our platform because of their seating capacity"says Julien Boullay.
The airport is therefore continuing to grow, but in a sensible and environmentally-friendly way. "We are an airport firmly rooted in the region, with a environmentally responsible approach. Marseille Provence Airport was awarded level 3 of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme by the International Airport Association in 2019, our airport having succeeded in reducing its CO2 emissions by 25 % between 2013 and 2017. Our ambition is to move towards carbon neutrality (level 3+), where all the airport's carbon emissions will be offset, by 2022."says Philippe Bernand.
One of the objectives will be to encourage even more public transport. The frequency of trains and bus shuttles has been increased with Marseille and surrounding towns such as Nîmes, Montpellier, Toulon and Nice. Nearly 18% of all passengers now come to the airport by public transport, an increase of 13.5 % compared with 2018. By 2025, public transport should account for 25% of all journeys to the hub. "We are in discussions with the region and the SNCF to integrate Vitrolles-Marseille Aéroport station into the metropolitan TER network."says Philippe Bernand.
