{"id":171737,"date":"2024-04-11T10:49:10","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T08:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=171737"},"modified":"2025-04-10T11:16:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T09:16:43","slug":"interview-airport-toulouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/interview-airport-toulouse","title":{"rendered":"Going international: Bruno Balerdi (Toulouse Airport)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toulouse-Blagnac a <\/strong>recorded over 7.8 million passengers in 2023, up 11%. <\/b>But this figure is still almost 19% less than 2019<\/a> who recorded<\/b> 9.6 million passengers<\/strong>. Bruno Balerdi explains why...<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Toulouse airport is experiencing a slower recovery than other French airports. What are the factors holding back a return to stronger growth?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Bruno Balerdi <\/strong>- The Covid crisis has profoundly transformed traffic at Toulouse airport. It is still affecting domestic traffic <\/strong>which has not regained its pre-pandemic momentum. There are many reasons for the 'breakdown' in domestic passenger traffic. Before the crisis, domestic and international traffic were on an equal footing. But theinternational <\/strong>accounted for 57% of market share last year, a historically high figure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In 2023, domestic traffic will have recovered only 70% of its 2019 level, compared with 93% for international traffic. This trend is largely due to the lower demand on the Toulouse-Paris route<\/strong>. Last year 2.2 million passengers compared with 3.2 million in 2019<\/strong>. We are therefore penalised by this missing million.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How do you explain such a drop on the Toulouse-Paris route?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Bruno Balerdi <\/strong>- Business passengers have adopted new travel practices. Videoconferencing is a long-term solution. At the same time, there has been a shift towards rail travel<\/strong>. It was thought that the arrival of TGV in 2032<\/strong><\/a> would protect us from a drop in traffic until then. In fact, we feel an attrition effect<\/strong> of the market since last year. Air France has drastically reduced the number of its frequencies and air fares are now very high. Optimising frequencies and high fares are having a negative impact on demand. In fact, many business travellers now spend three days in Paris, which makes a train journey more attractive despite the 4.5 hour journey time. By contrast, cross-border routes to Lyon, Nantes and Nice are performing well.<\/strong>. Traffic is also holding up well in Lille, Rennes and Strasbourg.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What are Toulouse Airport's main international successes in 2023?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Bruno Balerdi <\/strong>- The expansion of intercontinental traffic is the great success of 2023. The arrival of Air Canada and Qatar Airways<\/strong> has boosted international demand. With 5 flights a week throughout the year, the Toulouse-Montr\u00e9al<\/strong> opens the doors not only to Canada, but also to the United States and the Caribbean. We can see a high proportion of transit traffic<\/strong> of the 80,000 passengers on this route. With the flight of Doha<\/strong>Toulouse is open to the rest of the world.East Africa and Asia<\/strong>. Further flights on the intercontinental route are expected in the future. I think that by 2027, we should see routes to the United States operated by Boeing 737MAX.<\/strong>, ideal size for a service from Toulouse<\/strong>. Emirates<\/strong> has also expressed an interest in Toulouse. But the airline has exhausted its traffic rights to France...<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n