Growth, yes, but anaemic growth compared with the rest of the world. This can be seen from the results of the airports managed by the Vinci Group in France compared with the rest of the world. This clearly confirms that the French aviation dynamic has been well and truly broken since the increase in air taxes in 2025.
For the Vinci Group, one of France's flagship airport operators, France's lack of dynamism is becoming more and more of a millstone around its neck. Admittedly, the group is forecasting growth of 2.2% in 2025 at its 9 French airports, with 19.38 million passengers. But in comparison with other airports in various European countries, this result remains mediocre: Portugal is up by 4.7%, France is up by 2.2% and Germany is up by 2.2%. Serbia by 6.5% and Hungary by 12%. Ironically, Budapest airport welcomed more passengers than the 9 French airports, at 19.58 million! Only the United Kingdom fared worse: traffic at the three Vinci airports of Belfast International, Edinburgh and London Gatwick grew by 1%.
Vinci's two "flagship" airports in France - Lyon-Saint Exupéry and Nantes - saw virtually the same growth last year: +2.3% for the former, which welcomed 10.72 million passengers; 7.19 million for the latter, an increase of 2.6%. The biggest increase in traffic occurred at Clermont-Ferrand, whose traffic shows an increase of 8.8% in 2025 (0.249 million passengers) and at Chambéry with growth of 7.6% (0.191 million passengers). By contrast, Toulon has seen its traffic plummet. With 236,000 passengers last year, the Var hub lost 19% over one year.
The outlook seems mediocre on the face of it: in the last quarter, Vinci's French airports recorded a fall in passenger numbers of 0.5%. Only the Alpine airports (Annecy and Chambéry) and Lyon held up well, with traffic stagnating (+0.3%).
