French airports in disarray by 2020

We suspected as much and theUnion of French Airports UAF confirmed this. 2020 will have seen a collapse in traffic on a scale hitherto unknown in the history of French air transport.. Last year, French airports handled 70.045 million passengers, a fall of 67.3% compared with 2019. The number of flights reached 898,536 movements, a smaller decline of 54.3%.

" In 2004, French airports handled 135 million passengers and 1.93 million flights. By 2019, the number of passengers had reached a record 214 million. This is a completely unprecedented situation for our sector." says Nicolas Paulissen, General Delegate of UAF.

If we look at the figures in detail, traffic in mainland France fell by 68.4%. Only ten airports managed to exceed one million passengers. This compares with 17 the previous year.  Overseas France held up better, however due to territorial continuity. Traffic fell by "only" 50.5% to 6.37 million passengers.

Looking at the results by airport, Nicolas Paulissen points out that Roissy will have suffered particularly from the covid pandemic. The platform saw its traffic fall by 70,8%. This is due to the almost total disappearance of the long-haul traffic that feeds theAir France and its Skyteam partners.

As a result, the market share of Paris airports on all traffic is displayed falling. It has reached 51.9% of total traffic compared with 53.6% a year earlier. The sum total of passenger traffic at Paris airports CDG (22 million) and Orly (11 million) is equal to the 2019 traffic at Orly airport alone (32 million).

Regional airports put up resistance

The regional airports (with traffic of between one and five million passengers) and the local airports (with up to one million passengers) have in fact proved resilient. "Many of them actually have a high proportion of domestic traffic, which has been less affected," analyses Nicolas Paulissen. This explains, for example, the relatively good performance of Corsican airports (-43.4%).

Le international traffic was the hardest hit because of travel restrictions, with a decrease of 72.5%. The share ofinternational lost ten points over one yearfrom 74 to 64% of all passenger traffic. One surprise is the greater drop in low-cost airlines compared with traditional carriers. According to UAF, the number of passengers on low-cost carriers fell by 70%. This compares with a decline of 67.5% for traditional carriers. However, low-cost carriers continue to account for 33% of total traffic in France.Traffic recovery will be slow. " We expect 2021 to return to a level equal to 50% of 2019 traffic.. The first segments where a recovery will be felt will be affinity and leisure traffic. But this recovery is likely to remain handicapped by a supply that is smaller than demand needssays UAF President Thomas Juin.

Winning back passengers will involve The urgent need to rebuild France's connectivity. Covid will have reduced the country's connectivity rate by 85% on direct lines in June 2020 compared with June 2019. Then by 59% in September compared with the same period in 2019. " To be internationally attractive, France needs connectivity in order to regain its place in the air world.added the UAF President.