The Cassandras had predicted a difficult year for French air transport following the significant increase in taxation on the sector. Their prediction came true, with an effectively mediocre performance in 2025.
According to provisional figures from the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC), France's air traffic grew by just 2.8% last year, far less than the rest of Europe... including "red lantern" Germany, whose air traffic will have grown by almost 4% by 2025. According to German federal statistics, Germany welcomed some 210 million passengers last year.
In France, the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC) reported 183 million passengers. Growth in mainland France was similar: with 178.1 million passengers, the increase was also 2.8%. While domestic traffic continues to decline, falling by 1.5% in 2025 - or 26.9 million passengers - international traffic performed well.
Europe and the Americas lag behind
The DGAC reports that the international segment grew by 3.6%, or 156 million passengers. International growth was driven by strong growth in traffic to Asia-Pacific (+8.7%), Africa (+6.2%) and Overseas (+4.6%). Overseas, growth came mainly from the Metropolitan France-Reunion route, up 3.9%, and a spectacular 6.7% increase on the Fort-de-France/Pointe-à-Pitre route. To Africa, the Maghreb recorded very strong growth: France-Morocco traffic was up by 5.7%, France-Algeria by 5.8% and France-Tunisia by 7.6%.
Passenger traffic to Europe showed less growth: with the EU, it stood at 2.1%, but still represented almost half (47.5%) of international traffic with 73.9 million passengers. Europe outside the EU was more dynamic, with traffic up by 3.3 % to almost 25 million passengers.
The DGAC confirms the slowdown towards the Americas, particularly the United States. Passenger volumes were up by 3.1 % to over 16.6 million passengers. But growth was sluggish in the United States, at +0.8 %, compared with +7.4 % for Canada and +9.1 % for Brazil. So the Trump effect is no legend...
Finally, the results for French airports were mixed. Traffic continued to fall at airports in the south-west, with Toulouse down 2.8 % and Bordeaux down 10.9%. The tax hike introduced in March 2025 has also broken the momentum at airports where low-cost is predominant. Marseille saw its growth fall dramatically to 1.1 % and Beauvais to 1.8 %.
In this gloomy economic climate, there is one piece of good news: the French flag's share of traffic is rising slightly. Last year, French airlines generated 38.1 % of traffic, compared with 37.5 % in 2024. The French flag also increased its share of international traffic by one point, to 32.3 %.
