Domestic Skies: France

The French domestic market has almost doubled in the past 30 years with available capacity growing by 84.8 per cent from 17.69 million annual seats to 32.69 million. For a long period of time Air Inter dominated domestic skies and for a couple of years even held more than an 80 per cent share of the market. However, since 1998 Air France has been the number one carrier, although in recent years it has faced more competition from others, in particular easyJet.

The UK carrier first entered the French domestic market in 2002 initially between Paris CDG and Nice, adding flights from Paris Orly to Marseille and Toulouse in 2003; then Paris Orly to Nice in 2004 before significantly increasing its penetration in France from 2008 when Bastia, Biarritz and Lyon were added to the network, followed by Ajaccio and Nantes in 2009 and Brest in 2010. In that time easyJet has seen its share of the local market grow from just 0.7 per cent in 2002 to 7.9 per cent in 2010 when it became the second largest domestic operator in France. An increase in frequencies on some routes last year helped the airline further strengthen its position increasing its capacity share to 8.9 per cent.

The table below shows how the domestic French sector generally enjoyed strong growth during the 1980s and 1990s but like so many other developed markets has been in decline for the past decade. In the almost 20 year period between 1982 and 2000 the available domestic capacity in France grew by 122.3 per cent to a record high of 39.32 million seats. However, over the subsequent eleven years the market has declined by 18.5 per cent.

The dynamics of the French market have changed considerably over the past 30 years as some airports have secured new air links and developed as key regional facilities, while other have lost all commercial air services. The fastest growing airport in the country during this period has been Caen Carpiquet which has seen available capacity grow from just 4,806 annual seats to 51,210. In 1982 the airport was just linked to Le Havre and Rennes by Brit Air Embraer EMB-110 Banderiantes, but now the same airline provides regular flights to Figari Sud Corse, Lyon and Nice, while Airlinair has a Beech 1900 services to Paris Orly. As the table below highlights, the other airports to see the largest growth in traffic were Figari Sud Corse, Le Havre Octeville, Rennes St Jacques and Tours St Symphorien.

It is not just the smaller French regional airports that have witnessed strong growth in the past 30 years as the table shows notable growth at both Nantes Atlantique and Toulouse Blagnac too, both driven by low-cost airline development. Other notable rises at the country’s largest facilities at rates above the market average included Paris CDG (up 159.7 per cent), Bordeaux (up 158.3 per cent), Nice (up 94.4 per cent) and Lyon (up 87.4 per cent).

A total of eight French airports which had no regular services in 1982, now have regular scheduled flights. The largest of these is Paris Beauvais which has developed as a low-cost alternative to the French capital. In fact it is not just no-frills operators that are serving the facility as CIS flag carrier Air Moldova has recently announced it will switch its Paris flights to the airport. Ryanair launched domestic flights from Beauvais in 2008, initially to Marseille but it now also serves Beziers. Other airports now witnessing domestic flights are (in capacity order): Metz, Castres, Vatry International, Dijon, Cannes, Le Puy and Deauville.

There are 23 more airports that had scheduled domestic flights in 1982 but which no longer have planned services for this year. The largest of these are Grenoble, which has had no domestic links since Air France cancelled its link to Paris Orly in 2005, and Nimes which was last served domestically by Air Littoral in 2003.

The table below highlights the largest domestic airports by available weekly seat capacity this summer (April 14-20, 2012) and compares it with the same period last year. Eight of the country’s ten largest domestic gateways are providing more capacity this year than last with them all growing faster than the market average. Lille Lesquin, now ranked the tenth largest domestic airport in France, has seen the largest capacity growth of 45.1 per cent as it becomes part of the easyJet network. Marseille Provence has also witnessed a notable capacity growth as it jumped from sixth to fourth in the ranking, overtaking Nice and Lyon in the process.

The table below highlights the largest domestic airlines by available weekly seat capacity this summer (April 14-20, 2012) and compares it with the same period last year. The market has expanded in capacity by 5.1 per cent year-on-year with Ryanair being the main driver of this growth with a 72.9 per cent increase in available seats. easyJet’s new bases in Nice and Toulouse have facilitated domestic capacity growth of around a fifth, while regional carriers Chalair and TwinJet have also seen notable growth. A revision of the network activities of Air France’s partner carriers is thought to be the main reason for the large fall in capacity from Regional in the domestic market.

In the past week another new entrant has revealed plans to enter the French domestic market. Following on from its launch in Italy, Spanish carrier Volotea has confirmed it will establish a base at Nantes and also establish an extensive network from Bordeaux’s Mérignac Airport - among the seven destinations it will serve from the Gironde city are three domestic locations. From June 1, 2012 the low-cost carrier will introduce three times weekly flights to Ajaccio and Bastia, while from August 1, 2012 it will introduce a three times weekly link to Toulon. Meanwhile, from Nantes the start-up will fly to Ajaccio, Bastia, Perpignan and Toulon.