The second-largest airport in France with 11.5 million passengers, Nice is on the offensive to obtain an air traffic rights reform and secure more flights to more destinations.
Otherwise, the azure airport system will remain stalled and, in the long run, negatively impact the region’s attractiveness and growth capabilities.
The battle for the skies is underway, and everyone is positioning their pieces to secure the best connections and be able to travel directly without transiting through other hubs.
To date, as the true gateway to the Riviera, the Nice platform continues to fully play its role thanks to a collection of destinations that allow for direct reach to Europe, the Mediterranean basin, and across the Atlantic.
Regular connections to nearly all European hubs, as well as to New York and Dubai, make it possible to connect Nice to the world in a few hours. A unique position that solidifies Nice Côte d’Azur Airport’s place as a major platform in Southern Europe.
The key figures bear witness to this: 65 destinations, 37 regular airlines, 25 countries served, more than 800 weekly frequencies (+12% in Europe), an increase in seat offerings by 1.5%, equating to 70,000 additional seats.
Ten new routes will complete the offering, including five new winter destinations (Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Minsk, London City, Dole), one new country (Belarus), and four airlines that did not operate last winter (Belavia, Etihad Regional, IGavion, and Ryanair) making the difference.
These new winter routes are literally extensions of summer destinations that confirm the virtuous meeting of two factors: the region’s attractiveness and the dynamism of the European market.
Two players in the azure economy are fully committed to this process.
For Bernard Kleynhoff, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI): “We need a change of course to improve the connectivity of the Côte d’Azur,” while Yvon Grosso, president of UPE06, is equally decisive: “The current system of granting air traffic rights is an intolerable barrier to the development of our companies.”
