Promised for a bright future after the abandonment of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, the airport is not taking off

Tuesday 21st January 2025 09:38 PM

grounded – The number of passengers transported in 2024 has fallen further, but the signals for 2025 are encouraging

He only wanted to see the positive. The “signals” which show that the year 2025 will be that of a new beginning. The “efforts” of airlines which have strengthened their offer. Or even “the good curve” displayed at the end of the year, showing the recovery in traffic. The director of Rennes airport, Yannick Bouillier, firmly believes in the future of his platform, despite the air hole it has been going through since the Covid years.

Owned by the Vinci Airport group and the Brittany region, the airport was promised a bright future after the announcement of the abandonment of the mega airport project at Notre-Dame-des-Landes in 2018. Seven years later, the observation is however severe. In 2024, the Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande platform will only see 512,000 travelers pass through. Far, very far from the 850,000 passengers boarded in 2019, when the airport was growing. The pandemic has been there and cut the legs of an equipment which nevertheless displays arguments of proximity and presents the advantage of being “on a human scale”.

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Rennes is not the only one to have suffered from Covid-19. In France, few airports have managed to regain their pre-crisis vitality. Only the biggest ones made it. “The context is not favorable for small airports”, assumes the director, who mentions “the disengagement of Air France” in domestic flights. It's totally true. Except that other cities like Nantes and even Brest are doing much better. In this context, it is difficult to sed(…)