Approximately 1.5 million passengers travelled via Bordeaux Airport over the 2-month peak summer season. These figures were largely boosted by international routes which registered a record 482,500 passengers and an increase in traffic of 16.5%. Domestic flights also performed well, up 8.5% with 247,000 passengers.
The beaches and cultural wealth of the Nouvelle Aquitaine region attracted numerous tourists from abroad. Vast numbers arrived from the UK and Spain, with Germany close behind. There was also a marked increase in the number of American visitors during the month of August (Source: Comité Régional du Tourisme of Nouvelle-Aquitaine).
International traffic posted growth of 16.5% with 482,500 passengers, which is this year’s best performance for international flights.
- The international hubs were popular destinations: Frankfurt (+48.6%), Barcelona (+22%), Dublin (+21.5%), Brussels (+17.3%), Madrid (+7.5%) and Istanbul (+5.8%).
- Air Transat’s long-haul link with Montreal continued to find favour, taking 7,200 passengers across the Atlantic in the month, a strong increase of 47.8%.
- The British Isles posted 110,000 passengers in August, representing a 7.8% increase overall. The new London Southend route launched by easyJet in July got off to a good start, with 4,000 monthly passengers.
- The Iberian Peninsula reached a monthly total of 100,000 passengers, with excellent growth for Faro (+242%) and Ibiza (+231%), boosted by additional flights with easyJet joining Volotea on these two routes, as well as Malaga (+26.2%), Alicante (+10%) and Palma (+9.8%).
- Italy posted good results with approximately 50,000 passengers, and a special mention for Olbia (+16.6%) and Venice (+15.6%), as well as Catania, this season’s new link operated by easyJet, which registered 4,500 passengers in August. Greece and the Greek islands were in high demand too, with more than 17,000 passengers travelling to the 5 airports proposed from Bordeaux. Heraklion did particularly well (+95.5%) with flights operated by easyJet and Aegean, as did Santorini (+112.8%) with Volotea.
- Germany and Central Europe performed strongly alongside the sunnier destinations: Frankfurt (+48.6%), Munich (32.3%), Bucharest (+55.8%) and Berlin (+23.7%).
- The Maghreb pursued its growth with, among other destinations, Oran (+58.1%), Agadir (+18.4%) and Fez (14.9%).
247,000 passengers travelled on domestic flights, confirming a new-found growth which began in June, one year after the LGV high-speed rail link came to Bordeaux. Corsica was THE place to be this summer, with 45,000 passengers flying to 4 destinations in August: Bastia (+83.5%), Calvi (+57.5%), Figari (+35.1%), and Ajaccio (+21.6%). The transverse routes also produced dynamic results: Nice (+26.6%, Lille (+21%), Marseille (+16.2%) and Lyon (+12.4%). Paris traffic dropped by 8.6%
Low cost flights continued to boost the Airport’s activity, carrying more than half of all passenger traffic: 447,300 travellers, up 19.2% Airline easyJet held its leading position, with an increase of 19.7%, or 240,800 passengers. Volotea also did extremely well, with 14.1% growth.
