Air traffic in France is almost back to its pre-Covid level

Nearly 178 million passengers took the plane in France in 2024, or 99.1% of the level of 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to the resumption of international traffic, announced Thursday January 23 , the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC).

This recovery was slowed down by domestic traffic which continues to decline with only 27.4 million passengers, or 80.3% of the 2019 level, only connections between mainland France and the overseas departments having returned to their level. before the pandemic. The so-called radial connections, between Paris and provincial airports, are those which have collapsed the most, with only 71.5% of the number of passengers in 2019. Transverse connections – between provincial airports – are doing better, but remain largely down from 2019 (81.3%).

International traffic has exceeded its 2019 level, driven by trips between France and America, those to other countries of the European Union and especially to Africa, with 24.1% of passengers in more than five years ago. On the other hand, travel to Asia-Pacific remains lower than 2019 with only 87.4% of the number of passengers five years ago.

Travel to China and Japan in sharp decline

The most popular destinations were Spain and Italy, with 17.1 million and 14.4 million travelers respectively. This is 12.1% more than in 2019 for Spain and 15.6% for Italy. Turkey also experienced strong growth, with 37.9% more travelers in five years. Connections from France to the Maghreb have also largely exceeded pre-pandemic levels, with + 35% for Morocco, + 26.6% for Algeria and + 22.6% for Tunisia. Travel to China remains significantly down (64.6% of the 2019 level) as do those to Japan (68.2%).

Airport attendance is also uneven. Some platforms have exceeded their 2019 levels, sometimes significantly as in Beauvais (+ 64.6%). Paris-Orly, Nice and Marseille are also doing better than five years ago. But most airport platforms welcomed fewer passengers in 2024 than in 2019, starting with Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (92.3% of 2019 attendance). The airports having the most difficulty finding their passengers are Toulouse (81.5%), Bordeaux (85.7%) and Lyon (88.9%). These are also the only three airports to have still not exceeded 2019 levels by December 2024.