The last month of the summer holidays has brought the year’s strong tourist season to a spectacular end, with 642,000 passengers in the month. Traffic increased by 12.2%, or 70,000 additional passengers in August, and 350,000 since the beginning of the year. International traffic broke a new historic record, with a growth of 17.2% or 415,000 passengers. National traffic contributed to this success, with an increase of 4.1%, or nearly 228,000 passengers transported. Low-cost traffic showed the greatest growth of the month, with 17.7% additional traffic and 367,000 passengers.
International traffic made up over 60% of the monthly figure, with 415,000 passengers and growth of 17.2%. Spain holds its position as the favourite “sunny” destination for holidaymakers in August, with 57,500 passengers. There was a strong increase in traffic to Palma (+42.2%), Barcelona (+34.8%) and Madrid (+32.5%). Italy followed closely with 42,000 passengers: Pisa (63.4%), Naples (+30.6%) and Palermo (+24.6%) showed great success with Volotea. Greece also presented strong growth: Athens +71%, Corfu +31% and Santorini, for its first season, had 1,200 passengers for the month. Northern and Eastern Europe also had good results: Hamburg (+334%) with easyJet, Oslo (+124%) and Stockholm (+85.7%) with Norwegian or Prague (+22.3%) with Volotea. North Africa followed suit, with +43.9% for Algiers and +20.9% for Tunis. Long-haul flights to Montreal with Air Transat posted +5%.
By developing its international network and the dynamics of its service to large hubs (Madrid +32%, Lisbon +13.9%, Charles-de-Gaulle +3% or London +2.9%) Bordeaux Airport has promoted growth in the region’s tourist flows, with a rise of 7.5% in international arrivals this year compared with 2016, notably on long-distance markets such as China (+14%), the United States (+18%), Brazil (+23%), Russia (+30%) and Japan (+31%) (source FK – tourism report, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, peak season 2017).
Domestic traffic rose by 4.1% to 228,000 passengers. Corsica affirmed its status as the leader in growth, with nearly 30,000 passengers transported, up 23%. This success can be put down to the region’s strong tourist appeal, and the many connections with the island’s four airports served by Volotea for several years now, and which was backed up by Air Corsica this summer with the opening of additional flights to Ajaccio and Calvi. The Mediterranean coast has had a great summer, with traffic up 32.2% for Toulon, 23% for Nice, and 13.9% for Marseille. Paris (Orly/Roissy) reached the milestone of one million passengers since the beginning of the year, though traffic has dipped slightly by 2.5% since the beginning of July.
Low-cost traffic did very well, with a growth of 17.7% to 367,000 passengers. Over 2 million passengers have used the low-cost network since the beginning of the year. The 3 main operators on the platform, easyJet, Volotea and Ryanair, had excellent results. easyJet is the top operator in terms of the number of passengers transported (193,000), which represents growth of 11.7%. Volotea and Ryanair recorded growth for the month of 30% and 29% respectively, compared to 2016.
08/09/2017