Bordeaux Airport records growth of 8.6% for September

September 2012 was another very positive month for passenger traffic at Bordeaux Airport: over 411,000 passengers passed through the airport, up 33,000 on the same month last year (+8.6%). Tallying up the scores for 2012 thus far, passenger numbers are up by 10%.

Scheduled international flights(1) continue to drive growth at Bordeaux-Mérignac, with a 15% increase on last year and a total of almost 152,000 passengers. Domestic routes(2) saw numbers rise by 8.2%, with over 233,500 passengers. On the eve of new routes being launched by Volotea this October, our budget or low-cost(3) traffic saw another spectacular increase on last year’s figures: 44%. For the first nine months of this year, the low-cost sector has been responsible for almost 80% of the growth enjoyed by the airport.

Holiday charters have had a few difficult months, but bounced back in September with 26,000 passengers (up 15% on Sept. 2011).

(1) As the second and third largest international ‘hub’ connected to Bordeaux (after Paris Charles-de-Gaulle), London’s Gatwick and Amsterdam airports have been very popular destinations for the first nine months, respectively +10,8% and +7,7%. With the exception of a very small number of routes, international destinations once again recorded excellent results for September. For example, the biggest routes as far as passenger traffic is concerned are (from January to September 2012):

• Genève, 98.300 passagers, +3,5%,
• Madrid, 79.600 passagers, + 6,4%,
• Rome, 69.630 passagers, +142%
• Bâle, 56.432 passagers, +34%
• Charleroi, 54.400 passagers, +16%,
• Barcelone, 53.000 passagers, +59%,
• Lisbonne, 50.351 passagers, +103%.

(2) Bordeaux-Paris routes saw an overall slight increase of 1.6% (total traffic: 1,145,000 pax for the first 9 months), but connections with the international hub of Charles-de-Gaulle have risen by 6%. Marseille and Nice – both destinations available from two operators, Air France for both plus Ryanair and EasyJet respectively – have seen passenger numbers rise exponentially: up 47% and 65%.

(3) Bordeaux’s range of low-cost flight options now covers a range of thirty four destinations. Volotea recently announced the launch of two new destinations (Lille and Strasbourg) for October 2012, which makes a total of ten new routes launched since the company began operating from Bordeaux on April 24th 2012: Ajaccio, Bastia, Grenoble, Ibiza, Lille, Malaga, Palermo, Strasbourg, Toulon and Venice.