Double-digit growth in February: +10.7%

In just two months, over 73,000 more passengers have passed through the airport. International traffic continued to rise, with 13.6% growth and 210,000 passengers. Low-cost flights drove growth with an outstanding increase of 19.7%, representing more than half of all passengers, at 220,600 in the course of the month. Domestic traffic was also up, progressing by 8% to 213,000 passengers. 

International traffic posted excellent growth of 13.6% to 210,000 passengers. Morocco was a popular destination, especially Marrakesh which welcomed more than 8,000 travellers on direct flights from Bordeaux, operated by four airlines (Royal Air Morocco, easyJet, Ryanair and Tuifly). Fez ranked amongst the strongest increases in traffic (+97%) as Ryanair started operating flights to the city in addition to Air Arabia. Among the top destinations for growth, Basel Mulhouse took second place this month with a 49% increase, closely followed by Prague with a rise of 43.6% on February 2018. With 30,200 passengers in February, London posted the highest number of passengers with its three airports. 
The major European capitals continued to work their charm: Dublin (+24.8%), Berlin (+10.6%) and Madrid (+6.6%). February was a success for the new routes launched this winter to cities such as Zurich (6,437 passengers), Manchester (2,170 passengers), Valencia (2,153 passengers) and Tel Aviv (2,145 passengers).
Alongside the direct routes, the major European "hubs” continued to attract ever-larger numbers of passengers for connecting flights. This month, the Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, Amsterdam, London, Madrid, Frankfurt, Zurich and Casablanca platforms and their key airlines boosted the number of connecting flights by more than 15%.

The low-cost sector is driving this attractiveness, posting growth that confirmed the upward trend from 2018: +19.7% in February for 220,600 passengers. The three main low-cost airlines offering flights from Bordeaux all saw excellent and very similar growth rates: easyJet (+26.1%), Ryanair (+25.9%) and Volotea (+25.4%). easyJet holds on to its top position in terms of passenger numbers, having carried 144,000 travellers in February, a third of all passengers passing through the airport.

Domestic flights recorded a significant increase of 8%. Mention should be made of the strong performance of Air France for flights to Paris with 1% growth and 94,400 passengers. Flights to the main cities other than Paris also posted very strong growth: +28.1% for Lille, +23% for Marseille, +20.7% for Nice and +3.7% for Strasbourg. Even France’s N°1 cross-country route, Bordeaux-Lyon, grew by more than 13% this February. It should be noted that from April onwards, Ryanair is boosting its domestic flights from Bordeaux by offering 3 direct flights to Nantes each week.