Nice Côte d’Azur Airport,* which is expected to keep a terminal closed for much of 2021, has signed a three-year long-term partial activity agreement, it was learned Monday from the airport platform, the second largest in France after Paris.
“Terminal 1 will most likely not reopen before the summer and perhaps the reopening will only be temporary, to respond to the summer peak,” said an airport spokesperson. In 2020, traffic in Nice is expected to cap at around 4.5 million passengers, three times less than in 2019 (14.8 million) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The airport management, which connected directly to China before the crisis, nonetheless believes that once the health crisis is over, “airlines will be more inclined to reposition aircraft on the Côte d’Azur due to the attractiveness of the area” and thus, “the company’s intention is not to lay off staff but to preserve cash flow and expertise for when the recovery occurs”, according to the same source.
The long-term partial activity agreement (APLD), planned for a maximum duration of three years, stipulates that employees work on average at 60%, with a salary reduction of approximately 18%, and the possibility of returning to 100% in case of activity resumption.
In Nice, at the peak of the season, 8,000 people work at the airport including subcontractors and temporary staff.
