Record summer traffic at Bordeaux Airport: 2.3 million passengers over the four summer months, with overall growth of +9.2% and a special mention for international traffic: +13.3%.
Results at the end of September paint a very positive picture of summer 2016. International traffic grew to 1.3 million passengers, boosted by the opening of eight new destinations last spring. Low-cost traffic contributed significantly to this success, accounting for 50% of summer traffic and 15.6% growth in passenger numbers. There were also impressive gains for travel within France over these four months, up +4.5% compared to 2015.
A new record was set for international traffic: 1.28 million passengers and a +13.3% rise in passenger numbers over the 4 months summer season. “Sunny” destinations generally finished on the summer growth podium.
Spain posted the most spectacular growth of the season with +22.2% traffic compared to last year and 151,000 passengers. These positive results were partly attributable to an increased supply on existing routes in the spring: Barcelona +54.7%, jointly operated by Vueling and easyJet since mid-April, and Madrid up +36.6% in traffic with the arrival of Iberia Express, adding to the offering of the parent company, Iberia. Palma, Majorca (+23.7%), Malaga (+13.4%) and Ibiza (+7.7%) were also very popular with summer passengers.
Italy also performed very well with an increase of +20%. These results were mainly explained by the sharp upturn in passenger numbers on the Venice route (+124.2%), doubly served by easyJet and Volotea. Milan and Pisa were no exceptions to the country's success with +26% and +18.1% respectively.
Third place in the growth rankings went to the British Isles, up +19.1% over the four months; the strongest gains were for Southampton +181.1% (daily flights with Flybe as of this summer), Cork +64.8%, Birmingham +37.7% and the three London airports +12.2%.
Northern Europe was not left lagging behind as a rival to the “sunny” destinations. Vienna, joining the list of destinations with departures from Bordeaux for its second season with ASL Airlines, posted a +53.4% rise. Oslo recorded a solid upswing of +43.1%, with an extra weekly flight. Neighbouring Stockholm also registered a very satisfactory performance with +8.9%.
704,000 passengers used the international connection hubs during the last four months (+3%) with very successful results for Madrid (+36.6%), London (+28%), Lisbon (+9.9%) and Amsterdam (+2.8%). There was, however, a decline in traffic for Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (-4.3%) due to the Air France group’s lower seat supply, as well as in the direction of Istanbul (-8.9%) as a result of the geopolitical context.
All together, direct international routes traffic combined to flows of passengers via major intercontinental hubs, more than 1.7 million passengers (74% of total traffic) has flown from/to international destinations during this four month period.
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Domestic traffic recorded impressive advances of +4.5% over the four months. Corsica was the summer’s leading destination, up +17% with nearly 74,000 passengers in four months. Figari, operated by Hop! and Volotea, topped the growth charts with +40.1% increase in traffic. Marseille had a successful summer with +24.3% as a result of the double offering by Hop! and easyJet. Nantes and Lyon also followed this trend, up +9% and +8.1%. The Orly shuttle, La Navette by Air France, continued on the upside with +1.1%.
It has been a bright summer which saw a record set by low-cost traffic with 1.15 million passengers and 15.6% growth over the four months. Low-cost airlines ended the summer recording 50% of the airport’s traffic. easyJet posted the strongest performance with +15.4%, i.e. 650,000 passengers and three new routes since spring (Barcelona, Berlin, Venice), bringing its network of routes with departure from Bordeaux to 20. This achievement was echoed by Volotea with gains of +12.8%, due in particular to the opening of three new summer destinations: Alicante, Faro and Split.
This summer review is an opportunity for a reminder of:
Three new routes for the 2016-2017 winter season: Fez (Air Arabia), Las Palmas (Volotea) and Fuerteventura (Jetairfly).
And the continuation through the winter of the until now summer-only routes: Bristol and Berlin for easyJet, Edinburgh for Ryanair and Oran for Air Algérie.
