Lille and Strasbourg represent extremes in French airport performance in first half of 2009

Lille’s impressive recent growth can be explained by Ryanair’s decision to launch domestic services from its base in Marseille, which began last October. It also began a new Pisa service to Lille in June and started Alicante flights earlier this month.

Data from the leading French airports shows that in the first half of 2009 several have managed to report growth at some point, although overall traffic is clearly down. ADP which runs the two biggest airports at CDG and Orly reported that passenger numbers in the first six months of 2009 were down 6.4%. The number of connecting passengers fell by 4.9% resulting in connecting passengers now accounting for 24.4% of all passengers. The one bright spot has been the small growth in traffic to Africa, while Asia-Pacific traffic is down almost 10% year-on-year.

The sharp drop in performance in June at Paris Beauvais can be explained by the fact that the airport was closed for eight days while work on the runway was carried out.

Source: Airport websites and contacts Several airports have not yet released figures for June.

Lille’s impressive recent growth can be explained by Ryanair’s decision to launch domestic services from its base in Marseille, which began last October. Initially operated daily the route is now served double-daily and in the first half of 2009 traffic on the route (also served by Air France) has grown 148% to 136,674. Ryanair also began a new Pisa service to Lille in June and started Alicante flights earlier this month.

Strasbourg is still feeling the effects of the arrival of the TGV Est last year. However, in May the fall in traffic on the Paris routes only represented around 30% of the airport’s total year-on-year change in passenger numbers.