Airport of Nice: strong decrease of traffic in September

The passenger traffic, which has remained stable until the end of August, falls in September: - 20% on the national and – 10% on the international. For the whole year, the decrease would have decreased by 3.5%.

September has been a hard month for the international airport of Nice (as for all of the European airports). The passenger traffic has experienced a decrease by near 15%. Since the beginning of the year and more particularly this summer, the international traffic, which was still growing, had allowed to compensate a strong decrease of the national traffic.The international traffic also fallsLate August, the figures of the first eight months of the year had still increased by 0.4% compared to the same period 2000. Then, the national traffic had decreased by 7.6% but the international had increased by 9.6%. There was even a balance between the national and the international traffic.The situation changes in September: the international has decreased by 10% and the national traffic by 20%! And this situation will not have probably recovered before the end of the year. All the airline companies are reviewing their winter schedule which will be set up late October. At the moment, the number of planned flights has been reduced by around 5%. But the deficit could be even worse, since all of the airline companies have not yet announced their program modifications.A good news: the Delta Airlines' flight between Nice and New York, in shared code with Air France, has not been stopped. As Delta Airlines has cancelled many international links, it was not obvious that this daily flight, which benefits from an excellent occupancy rate, would be maintained.Forecast: a decrease by 3.5% of the traffic over the yearHowever, for the first time in a long time, the international airport of Nice, used to increase by 7 to 10%, has experienced a decrease of its traffic. Over the year 2001, the officials of the Chamber of Commerce Nice Côte d'Azur, the managing team of the plat-form, expected a decrease of the number of passengers by around 3.5% (9.4 million passengers in 2000). Without mentioning the bankruptcy of Swissair which has just happened and which is going to weaken two essential companies in Nice: Air Lib and Air Littoral.This sudden decrease of the traffic also changes the financial deal of the CCI NCA for the transformation of the airport. Indeed, enormous investments (more than one billion francs) have been launched for the development of the plat-form with, among others, the extension of Terminal 2 buildings and the construction of a new parking slot (the construction project of the commuter terminal for the regional hub has been suspended). Such investments make airport's expenses raise up while profits risk seriously to decrease.