Also read: Low-cost: Transavia, RyanAir and Easy Jet move ahead in the French market

The development of low-cost, growth engine for airports in the provinces from 2008 

It is nonetheless possible to identify 2 groups depending on the degree of importance of low-cost in the growth in the volume of travelers:

• the 4 leading airports in the provinces (Nice, Lyon, Toulouse and Marseille) whose activity was already important before the arrival of low-costs and which had already accumulated more than 5 million passengers in 2004 before the development of low cost flights. In 2018, the share of low cost flights is still in the minority and the evolution of the total number of passengers does not exactly follow the evolution of low-cost passengers. 
• the next 4 (Basel-Mulhouse-Fribourg, Bordeaux, Nantes and Lille) which emerged completely with low cost companies and whose number of passengers more than doubled (even quadrupled for the Basel-Mulhouse-Fribourg airport) between 2004 and 2018. Low-cost holds a majority share and growth is strongly correlated with the evolution of low cost air travel.

In Marseille and Bordeaux, international travelers increased with low-cost

Between 2009 and 2018, the number of international passengers increased from 1 million to 3.8 million passengers or 56.2% of the total number of passengers. The low-cost offer made it possible to create a new demand from international clientele who would not be there without these new routes. According to Olivier Occelli, president of the Office de Tourisme de Bordeaux, who was contacted regarding this subject, this European opening made possible by low-cost flights was clearly visible through the volume of international visitors at tourist information centers and museums. According to him, the development of low-cost flights should be compared with the appearance of a new mode of tourism consumption: the "short city-break", 2 to 3 night, usually over a weekend, to an urban...