Bordeaux-Merignac Airport

OVER 3 MILLION PASSENGERS TO END SEPTEMBER
GROWTH: +10.6%

Growth in September saw a return to the sharp upwards trend of the first months of 2011 after the slight slowdown in August, with +10.6% for the month and a total of 378.800 passengers.
The 3-million passenger mark over 2011 to date was therefore reached, including 750,000 passengers on low-cost airlines. Bordeaux continues to show the strongest year-to-date growth of all the major French airports. The increase in aircraft movements remained moderate (5.8%), with lower growth than that in passenger traffic thanks to the improvement in the seat occupancy rate.

Bordeaux Airport passed the 3 million passenger mark at the end of September, one month earlier than in 2010. Monthly growth figures for overall, national and international traffic were all +10.6%.

All international geographical zones benefited from the average monthly growth of 15% on scheduled flights (132,000 passengers). All in all, Europe was up 18.5% and represented one-third of traffic through Bordeaux. Southern Europe boasted a figure of +56% in September, and the British Isles +2.9%. Services to and from North Africa continued to be hard hit by the political situation there in recent months, with a 16.8% loss of traffic.

Special mention should be made of the exceptional growth on the dual-operator lines that opened this year or previously: +152% for Barcelona with Air France and Vueling, +112.7% for Lisbon with Air France and TAP, +89.3% for Madrid with Iberia and easyJet, +10.5% for London Gatwick with British Airways and easyJet. Just keep an eye on the arrival of Ryanair at the end of October on the Bordeaux-Rome route which is already showing growth of +49.2% just with Air France.

Charter traffic was down 11.3%, with the spectacular growth on Mediterranean destinations such as Bodrum, Heraklion, Rhodes or Palma not being enough to make up for the marked fall on North Africa.

Monthly domestic traffic was up 10.6% in September (224,300 passengers) with a breakdown of +8.1% for Paris (Orly +9.1%, Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle +6.3%) and +11.2% for province-to-province routes. There was a slight fall on Marseille in September, but since the beginning of October that line has seen the benefit of attractive prices and an increase of 30% in the number of seats available with Air France, thanks to the opening of the company’s Marseille regional base.