FLUG REVUE October 2002: Lyon airport seeks expansion

LYON SAINT-EXUPÉRY PLANS EXPANSION

By Christiane Rodenbücher

With 39 international and 29 domestic scheduled connections, 47 charter destinations and 13 cargo routes in the present summer flying schedule, Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport offers its passengers a wide choice of destinations. However, the absence of direct long-haul connections to North America and the Caribbean, axed during the crisis year 2001, is felt keenly by the population of Lyon and the surrounding area, known as the Rhône-Alpes.

On the other hand, connections to international hubs such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Milan Malpensa and Paris Roissy are still extremely good, with 40 to 50 connections per week in both directions in each case.

The locals in and around Lyon, France's second most important business centre after Paris, are keen to have point-to-point connections with the USA and Canada restored. Destinations such as Detroit, Boston, New York and Chicago are at the top of the wish list of companies surveyed in the latest surveys and market analyses, according to development manager Alain Favier. Moreover, there is plenty of scope for expansion in his view in the markets of Egypt, Scandinavia, Greece and Spain.

According to Favier, the potential in the Rhône-Alpes already exists and there is enough demand to justify adding such destinations. Yet, much as the airport management and also the mayors of Lyon and hinterland endeavour to expand the route network, apparently they keep running into barriers imposed from within France: it is impossible to bypass the obsession with centralisation of the capital city, Paris.

Paris with its three airports continues to be the top priority among many politicians, and even flag carrier Air France seems not to be prepared to expand its European hub in Lyon, which has been in existence since 1997, to include any non-European destinations.

"95% of the tourist market lives outside of Paris,” says Favier. "Sooner or later decentralisation is inevitable, as traffic in Paris is approaching its capacity limits.” Yet at present the political will is still lacking.

Nevertheless, Lyon airport is persisting with its endeavours to persuade Air France of the necessity of flying to the USA, Canada, the Caribbean and also the Indian Ocean. If Air France is not prepared to take up the challenge, then, Favier argues, another operator should be found to serve those destinations from Lyon. The city is extremely well integrated into a multi-modal transport network through motorways, the high-speed TGV train service and numerous scheduled bus services.

Over 50 German companies have set up business operations in the Lyon region, for example Aventis. Having been one of the most important trading centres in Europe since the Middle Ages, Lyon is gaining in importance as a centre of the pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and information technology industries. According to a recent OECD study, the amount of foreign direct investment in France actually rose during 2001 by just under $53 billion, compared with most of the other Member States. France remains attractive as a business location.

Development manager Favier explains that the population of the Rhône-Alpes is six million inhabitants. Moreover, whatever criteria one uses to assess the economic importance of Lyon, whether gross national product, foreign trade or imports, Lyon always accounts for about ten per cent. The business market is just as dynamic in Lyon as in Paris. And Saint-Exupéry airport, which in 2001 handled about six million passengers, 60% of them business travellers, wants to be ready to take advantage of developments.

The strategy of the airport management is aimed at establishing Lyon, home to international organisations and institutions such as Interpol and Euronews, as a second international gateway to France. In 2001, Lyon airport handled the third largest number of passengers after Paris and Nice, which handled nine million passengers, one-third of whom were concentrated on the Nice-Paris route.

In Lyon, on the other hand, only 700,000 passengers flew on Paris-Lyon connections, due to heavy competition from the TGV high-speed link, which carries 240,000 passengers per year to Paris in a mere two hours.

However, staff who have worked at the airport for many years but wish to remain anonymous believe that the Paris network is playing a critical role in the fight for market share and is touting for passengers right on Lyon's doorstep. Thus, apparently passengers from Lyon who ask travel agents to get them an international connection that can be reached directly from both Lyon and Paris are frequently booked on transfer connections via the capital in order to feed the Charles de Gaulle hub.

Until two years ago Saint-Exupéry airport still went by the name of Satolas, but was renamed on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the heroic pilot and author of "Night Flight” and "The Little Prince”. Since its first year of operations in 1975, passenger numbers have risen continuously, on domestic routes from one million to 2.6 million passengers and on international routes from 0.5 to 3.4 million.

Unlike Toulouse, Geneva, Nice and Marseilles, the number of passengers passing through Lyon airport even grew, by 1.5%, during 2001. The loss of traffic following the termination of services to America and the Caribbean was partly offset. Of critical importance here were new services to Poland, Turkey, Algeria and Ireland, which met with a good response. 40% of total traffic in 2001, just under 2.5 million passengers, were on return flights to European destinations. 550,000 passengers were flown to the United Kingdom, followed by 500,000 to Germany and 300,000 to Spain.

However, the regional Lyon hub of Air France – by far the biggest airline at the airport, handling 3.3 million passengers, up 11.7% from the previous year – is slowly reaching its capacity limits. While Terminal 2 is at present being expanded and within a few months will allow a total of eight million passengers to be handled per year, the runway system, with one 4,000m and one 2,617m runway, is already fully utilised in three peak periods per day. At 7.30am, 2pm and 6.30pm, 40 aircraft arrive at 90-second intervals, only to take off again 30 minutes later. The upper limit is actually 36 landings per hour, or fifty movements per hour in a mix of take-offs and landings. The rest of the day there is very little traffic, and during these periods the airport would be glad to gain more low-cost carriers like Ryanair, Buzz and Go Fly, which already fly to Lyon.

"The tight schedule at peak times of the day can only be adhered to in good weather,” explains tower chief controller, Marie-Odile Samson. "When it is very foggy or there is a strong north-south wind, the planes have to take off and land at four minute intervals.” When the weather is bad, nearby Grenoble airport serves as a diversion airport. From there, passengers are transported back to Lyon by bus, which takes 50 minutes. On about five days per year, Lyon has to resort to this diversion manoeuvre.

There are plans to build two additional 3,200m runways to the west of the airport area, running parallel to the two existing runways, also in a north-south direction. Between 2002 and 2006 a total of Euro 300 million is to be invested on these and other expansion measures. The possibility of building yet another two runways and also a third terminal is already under consideration, with a view to then being able to handle an annual passenger capacity of 17 million.

Euro 530 million is to be spent every year for several years starting in 2006, although timescales for this second stage of the master plan have not yet been set in concrete. "The airport can invest five times its income every year,” says Jean-Luc Wolf, responsible for planning and development, explaining the self-financing concept of the airport, which belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon and hence is 100% state-owned.

At present, the arrivals and departures areas at Saint-Exupéry are being reorganised so as to occupy two levels. Up to now passengers have found everything on one floor, which has proved very confusing.

"To date the airport management has succeeded extremely well in responding to requests for increased capacity from airlines like Air France and Lufthansa,” says deputy manager Giacomo Pinto, referring to building activities at the airport in recent years. New passenger bridges were needed ten years ago for larger aircraft types such as the Boeing 737, and the airport built them immediately. Today smaller aircraft such as the CRJ are gaining in use. This meant that overnight a whole series of additional parking spaces needed to be created for regional jets. Room for expansion is not a problem. Over the next few years the airport grounds are to be extended from their present 1,000 hectares to 2,000 hectares.

The cargo area is to grow to 200 hectares, while the service facilities for freight handling are also to be optimised. Last year air cargo dropped back by 13.4% to 30,000 tonnes, while the volume of freight transported by lorry fell by just under 4% to 100,000 tonnes.

DHL relocated part of its operations to Metz in 2000, so that today UPS is the biggest cargo operator at Lyon airport. About one-fifth of the total 5,200-strong airport employees work in cargo, and Eric Burdin, head of marketing cargo and logistics , sees in this an indication of a significant increase in importance in the future. He points out that it is difficult to expand cargo operations near Paris. "We intend to market the advantages of Lyon more aggressively: the attractive geographical situation of the city, its good transport network, 24-hour operations and the scope for physical expansion.”

No matter whom one talks to at the airport, the dominance of the French capital city is a recurring topic of conversation. "Not much has changed since Napoleon's day,” says one airport employee with a smile, "It is unlikely that any earth-shattering changes will take place in the status quo in the near future.”

From page 72 of FLUG REVUE 10/2002

Last updated 12 September 2002

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