The start of the summer season showed strong overall gains with 7.8% growth
Total traffic for 2017 is up by almost 10%. This rise was a result of the increase in our international services for the summer programme. International traffic increased by 17.4%. The low-cost sector increased by 17.5% compared to 2016. National traffic plateaued, affected by a fall in traffic to/from Paris-Orly due to the new school holiday calendar for 2017.
International flights posted 17.4% growth in April, representing 269,123 passengers, boosted by the spring holidays both in our region and in other European countries.
Northern Europe recorded very good results: Bristol +31,5%, Charleroi +30%, Berlin +22,9%, Birmingham +20,3%. The Mediterranean continued to appeal for departures from Bordeaux: Split (+59%), Tenerife (+48%), Tunis (+36%), Palma (+32,1%), Dubrovnik (+22,9%), Heraklion (+20%). The Iberian Peninsula was also attractive: Madrid (+65%), operated for the 1st year by 3 airlines - Iberia, Iberia Express, and Volotea - followed by Palma (+32.1%), Barcelona (+30.3%), and Lisbon (23.9%).
Three routes opened in April: Lufthansa arrived with flights to and from Frankfurt, while Volotea launched two new destinations, Malta and Madrid.
Domestic traffic plateaued at +0.1% and 254,350 passengers. While this result was due to the holiday period in Paris which reduced traffic with Hop! Air France to Orly (-6.9), some larger cities saw significant growth: Strasbourg (Volotea and Hop! Air France) +27%, Marseille (easyJet and Hop! Air France) +16.7%, and Nice (easyJet and Hop! Air France) +7%.
Corsica began its peak season with nearly 10,000 passengers and 17.7% growth on services to Ajaccio, Bastia, and Figari. This growth is in line with the increase in flights to Corsica, with the arrival of Air Corsica serving Calvi and Ajaccio from 2 July 2017.
Low-cost airline traffic continued to grow with +17.5%, a total of 263,900 passengers. This represents half of the airport’s total traffic. EasyJet maintained its leading position with 156,000 passengers and +11.5% of traffic. Volotea also continued to progress with growth of +21% and 40,350 passengers a month.