Sometimes you'd think you were back twenty years ago, in the era of major construction projects, driving through certain French airports. Lyon and Toulouse, for example. The arrival this August of the express tramway linking Lyon city centre directly to Saint-Exupéry airport, France's third-largest airport, brings to an end - albeit more likely to be temporary - a good decade of all-out construction. The inauguration of Terminal D in Toulouse is a reminder that passenger traffic there grew by more than 17 % between 2000 and 2009, from 5.3 million to 6.3 million.
An airport every 120 km
Lyon and Toulouse are far from isolated cases. Over the last fifteen years or so, the public authorities - represented until 2006 by the chambers of commerce at most regional airports - have embarked on an ambitious programme to modernise airport hubs, giving France one of the most modern air infrastructure networks in the world. It's not widely known that France has one of the highest densities of airports in the world. There is one every 120 km on average, giving a total of 150 hubs, including 89 airports. commercial traffic recorded by the Union of French Airports.
These airports are the cornerstone of regional planning. Between the 60s and the 80s, the public authorities gave satisfaction to every prefecture dreaming of an airport. Not to mention major structural projects such as Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Lyon-Satolas and, by 2020, Nantes-Notre-Dame-des-Landes. In all cases, the presence of an airport is an argument in favour of regional economic development. Especially at a time when the SNCF is closing secondary lines to concentrate on its TGV network. On closer examination, however, we might wonder about the profitability of all this infrastructure. For example, Rochefort airport only handled 30 passengers in 2009, Nevers 310, while Saint-Brieuc was a giant with 3,516 passengers.
But even when these hubs are loss-making, they are a real boon for airlines. "Look at the low-cost airlines in the South-West. They offer connections to Europe from airports located 100 km apart, an unparalleled density... What's more, they generate traffic", enthuses Jacques Sabourin, General Secretary of the Union des Aéroports Français.
Competing with the TGV
Admittedly, not all airlines are rushing to Nevers or Saint-Brieuc. But France's largest airports - those with at least 200,000 passengers a year - have been successfully courting airlines for some years now.
This situation was largely caused by two major developments: the development of the TGV and the privatisation of Air France. The rise of the high-speed train has meant that French airports have lost the windfall from domestic transport. Where the TGV is used, air traffic on competing routes is no longer growing. Generally speaking, it is falling by an average of 50 %. The latest victim, for example, is Strasbourg airport. Its passenger traffic was almost halved between 2006 and 2009 following the introduction of the TGV Est, dropping from over 2 million passengers to just 1.1 million last year. And the growth of the TGV in neighbouring regions will continue to limit the traffic prospects of many hubs...
Paradoxically, the privatisation of Air France has had an impact on regional airports. In 1999, the national carrier was partially privatised, a development that was confirmed in 2004 with the creation of Air France-KLM. And in the spirit of rationalising costs and structures, Air France cut through the red tape by restructuring its offer in the provinces to invest in the construction of its main hub at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle. With some 2,326 connections this summer on the Air France-KLM network, Paris-CDG is Europe's biggest hub, well ahead of Frankfurt with 1,911 connections and Amsterdam with 9,470 connections. Air France also maintains a strong network of connections from Orly (mainly domestic routes) and has created a second regional hub at Lyon-Saint Exupéry.
For their part, airports such as Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux and Toulouse have gone elsewhere to find the airlines they were suddenly lacking. "The withdrawal of Air France has had the effect of an electroshock for decision-makers at provincial airports", says Pascal Bigot, Director of Development at Montpellier Méditerranée airport. And it is by means of aid to promote new air routes and reductions in charges - within the strictly legal framework of provisions adopted by the European Union - and the development of new infrastructures that each French airport is trying to attract other airlines or new services. And the after-sales service is proving to be rather effective, judging by the avalanche of air routes opened between the last quarter of 2009 and the first half of 2010: British Airways has increased its routes to Marseille and Toulouse from London, SAS has resumed its flights between Lyon and Copenhagen, becoming the fourteenth European airline to operate to the Rhone capital. Baboo has set up in Nice-Geneva, while Iberia finally launched its long-awaited Toulouse-Barcelona route at the end of last year. It would seem that the crisis is only in our minds.
Toulouse seems to be one of the most attractive French destinations at the moment. CSA from Prague, Swiss from Zurich and probably SAS from Copenhagen all have their sights set on the Airbus capital. "Our medium-term objective is also to attract non-European airlines, and we hope soon to be able to launch new routes from Toulouse to the Emirates, with Qatar and Etihad, as well as to North America and New York in particular", explained Catherine Gay, Director of Strategy and Development at Toulouse airport, at the Routes Europe forum last May. The ash cloud in April even acted as a public relations boost for the hub, as the new Hall D welcomed a number of long-haul flights originally scheduled for Paris. "This proves that we have the capacity to handle long-haul traffic", said Jean-Michel Vernhes, Chairman of Toulouse Airport's Management Board, during the same forum. By 2015-2020, Toulouse hopes to welcome some 8.5 million passengers.
Lyon has also benefited from the advantages offered by the Rhône-Alpes region, France's second-largest economic centre with a catchment area of 12 million inhabitants. With its regional hub, Air France remains the leading operator at the airport, with some forty domestic destinations, as well as flights to Europe and North Africa. At the beginning of 2010, the airline accounted for almost 45 % of all passenger traffic, followed by Easyjet with just over 17 % of market share. The great strength of Lyon, as well as Marseille and Bordeaux, is that it offers services tailored to all types of airline. "We offer a tailor-made product for airlines and passengers alike: services adapted to the Air France hub, in particular with a regional jetty; an airport at Bron dedicated to business aviation and, finally, a terminal with simplified services for low-cost airlines", explains Philippe Bernand, Director of Aéroports de Lyon.
Highly sought-after low-cost carriers
A terminal dedicated to low-cost carriers? This would have been a laughing matter less than a decade ago. After Marseille and Lyon, Bordeaux inaugurated a similar structure last March. The simplified 'Billi' terminal will eventually be able to handle 2 million passengers, compared with some 500,000 last year.
The assiduous courting of low-cost carriers by airports is probably the most remarkable development in French air transport. "Many airports now see their only salvation in the low-cost carriers", analyses the French airline industry. Jacques Sabourin. The Union of French Airports lists 37 airports in France hosting low-cost carriers. While low-cost carriers had an average market share of 17.8 % in 2009 (28.1 % excluding Paris), at Beauvais they accounted for 100 % of the total number of passengers, and more than 90 % at Dinard, Tours, Béziers, Angoulême, Nîmes, Bergerac and Carcassonne. At the major French airports, low-cost airlines still have a 47 % market share at Basel-Mulhouse, 38 % at Biarritz and 32 % at Nice. Paris airports are at the bottom of the table, with 22 % market share at Orly and 8 % at Roissy.
Air France concentrates on Paris
If we look at the most important airlines departing from French airports in the regions, we see that Air France only maintains its leading position thanks to the operation of its Paris routes. In Marseille, for example, Ryanair has become the leading airline on European routes, ahead of Lufthansa, KLM and British Airways. In Nice, Easyjet became the leading Côte d'Azur carrier on European routes, again beating out traditional operators such as British Airways and Lufthansa. Last year, the airports that best withstood the crisis were those where low-cost transport was booming: traffic at Lille airport jumped by more than 13 % with the opening of new routes by Ryanair, while at Bastia and Figari, passenger traffic soared by more than 8 % thanks to Easyjet's launch of routes to the continent. In Marseille, total passenger traffic rose by 4.7 % last year, but low-cost traffic in the MP2 simplified services terminal jumped by 57 %! According to Pierre Régis, Managing Director of Marseille Airport, Ryanair's opening of domestic routes to Nantes and Lille generated new passenger traffic, with increases of 64 % and 122 % respectively. With its four aircraft based in Marseille, Ryanair carried 1.5 million passengers in 2009.
However, the presence of low-cost airlines is not the solution to all our problems. Over-dependence also entails risks. Ryanair, for example, has a reputation for paying dearly for its presence through subsidies. And if the Irish airline considers that it is not receiving enough aid, it generally closes its stopover without warning, as happened in Angoulême at the beginning of the year. More recently, Ryanair threatened to leave Marseille in November if it was prosecuted for illegal employment.
Another reason for uncertainty is the relative fragility of the low-cost sector. Apart from giants such as Ryanair and Easyjet, or low-cost carriers benefiting from the logistics of a major carrier such as Transavia (Air France-KLM) or Germanwings (Lufthansa), many low-cost carriers disappear as quickly as they arrive, leaving passengers and airport managers in the lurch.
Compared with regional airports that are easy on low-cost carriers, Paris airports are a notable exception. Aéroports de Paris management says it treats all airlines equally. The presence of the Air France hub at Roissy and the attractiveness of Paris put the French capital's airports in a strong position. Crisis or not, Paris estimates that by 2020 its two hubs at Roissy and Orly should be handling 112 million passengers a year, compared with 83 million last year. The airport group is investing €2.4 billion to improve the quality of service in its terminals and make it easier to handle this extra traffic.
Major projects in Paris
Priority continues to be given to the Air France group's hub, centred around terminal 2. Following the inauguration of the S3 satellite in the extension of terminal E, 2012 will see the entry into service of the S4 satellite. This will compensate for the loss of capacity due to the closure of terminal 2D for renovation. Other major projects include the renovation of terminal 2B and the eventual merger of terminals 2A and 2C with a large central area that will house shops, services and lounges.In total, between 2007 and 2012, Aéroports de Paris will have generated additional capacity of 25 million passengers at Roissy.
What will happen beyond 2012? Last January, the daily La Tribune revealed a more or less secret study on increasing Roissy's capacity to handle 30 million additional passengers, with a terminal 4 probably coming into service around 2024, to the north of the Roissypôle zone. Finally, at Orly, halls 2 and 3 of the West terminal will undergo major renovation work between 2012 and 2015.
Aéroports de Paris is also talking about the possibility of a new international satellite by 2020 at Orly Sud. Unless, of course, a third airport comes to the rescue, reviving the tradition of major airport projects of the Thirty Glorious Era. A sign that French air transport has a bright future ahead of it.
