more and more passengers are traveling low cost

The Union of French Airports (UAF) revealed this Wednesday the traffic figures for the year 2023. Here is what you need to remember.

Traffic remains lower than pre-Covid

This is the main lesson: traffic at French airports has still not returned to its pre-crisis levels, according to the annual report of the profession. In 2023, French airport platforms saw 198.7 million passengers pass through, a figure certainly up 14.2% compared to 2022 (i.e. almost 25 million passengers more), but still down by 7 .3% compared to 2019, the last full year before the Covid-19 pandemic which reduced traffic by 70% in 2020, specifies the Union of French Airports (UAF).

Growth is driven internationally

Although it remains below the 2019 level (-2.8%), international traffic increased by 20.2% in 2023 compared to the previous year. So-called “domestic” traffic (within the country) has decreased compared to 2022 (-1.7%) and still remains 20.8% lower than its 2019 level. Thus, in 2023, the growth in total traffic is essentially driven by the recovery in international traffic. It now represents 77% of traffic in mainland France.

Low-cost airlines are doing well

Beyond volumes, the nature of traffic has changed significantly between before and after the health crisis: low-cost traffic now represents 43.2% of traffic in mainland France, or more than 80 million passengers, while it represented 35% of traffic in 2019. Low cost traffic has thus largely exceeded its 2019 level (+13.8%), while traditional traffic has not completed catching up to its pre-Covid level (80.8% of its 2019 level).

Attendance at specialized airports has jumped, for example with 41.6% growth for Beauvais (Oise) (more than five million passengers), Ryanair’s base, between 2019 and 2023. The companies (Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air, Vueling, Volotea, Transavia, Eurowings, etc.), which mainly operate short and medium-haul flights and target leisure customers or diasporas, have seen their model “establish itself in France and Europe” and French regional airports owe them “great economic benefits”, analyzes Thomas Juin, the president of the UAF.

Note, among the losers over four years, are the Breton airports (Brest, -34.4%, Rennes, -30.2%), Strasbourg (-21.8%) and Toulouse-Blagnac (-18.9% ) who are experiencing competition from rail and a shift away from business travel.

And for the years to come?

If the UAF expects to return to the pre-crisis number of travelers in France this year, growth in the coming years will be “sluggish” under the effect of “increased costs” linked to the imperatives of decarbonization of the air transport, warns the president of the UAF.