DATA SPOTLIGHT: Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport

12 February, 2020

This year The Blue Swan Daily will feature some of the leading airlines, airports and country markets for air travel. Here, using the extensive profile insights available to CAPA - Centre for Aviation members to deliver a data snapshot on Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport, which based on the continuation of recent annual growth rates could see it exceed traffic levels at London Heathrow in 2020 and become Europe's largest air gateway.

Over the past ten years, annual traffic levels at France's largest gateway and major hub for Air France have grown from 58 million in 2010 to 76 million in 2019. Over the past three years passenger levels have risen year-on-year at +5.4% in 2017, +4.0% in 2018 and +5.4% in 2019. A further +5% growth in 2020 will see those levels almost hit the 80 million level that the capacity-constrained London Heathrow has recorded for the past two years.

London Heathrow, for a long time the world's largest international airport, has seen growth the past decade despite its well-documented capacity restrictions. Annual traffic levels grew from 65 million in 2010 to almost 81 million last year, but the rate has stagnated over the past couple of years. Much of the growth over recent years has been delivered via more efficient air transport management, as well as larger and fuller aircraft.

Will Paris beat London to the title of Europe's largest airport in 2020? Just six weeks into the new year it is impossible to tell. However, looking at flight schedules for the first half of the year it appears the status quo will remain. The Blue Swan Daily analysis of OAG flight schedules shows that system capacity at Paris Charles De Gaulle will actually be down 0.3% year-on-year over 1Q 2020 and +1.3% in 1H 2020. This compares to figures of +1.2% for 1Q and +1.4% for 1H at London Heathrow.

ABOUT
Paris Charles de Gaulle (Roissy Airport) is main international gateway to France and a major aviation hub in Europe. Among the largest airports in the world, Charles de Gaulle is located to the north of Paris and is continental Europe's busiest airport. Hosting over 60 domestic, regional and international passenger and cargo airlines, the airport is a hub for Air France, easyJet, and FedEx Express. It is operated by Groupe ADP, formerly known as Aeroports de Paris.

GLOBAL RANKING (as at 10-Feb-2020)

NETWORK MAP (as at 10-Feb-2020)

DESTINATIONS (as at 10-Feb-2020)

ANNUAL PASSENGER TRAFFIC (2010 - 2019)

MONTHLY PASSENGER TRAFFIC AND SEASONALITY IN DEMAND (2014 - 2019)

ANNUAL CAPACITY (2012-2020*)(NOTE:The values for this year are at least partly predictive up to 6 months and may be subject to change)

CAPACITY SPLIT BETWEEN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

LARGEST AIRLINES BY CAPACITY (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

LARGEST DOMESTIC DESTINATION MARKETS (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

LARGEST INTERNATIONAL DESTINATION MARKETS (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

AVERAGE FLIGHT LENGTH (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

AIRLINE BUSINESS MODEL CAPACITY SPLIT (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

ALLIANCE CAPACITY SPLIT (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

INTERNATIONAL MARKET CAPACITY BREAKDOWN BY REGION (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS BY MOVEMENTS (w/c 10-Feb-2020)

SYSTEM CARGO PAYLOAD (2013 - 2020*)(NOTE: The values for this year are at least partly predictive up to 6 months and may be subject to change)

MORE INSIGHTS...

Paris-New York aviation market: Corsair, French bee and others

European airport "connectivity" growth slows

Europe's rail system often complementary to air - not the alternative

Air France reabsorbs subsidiary Joon: an also-ran, failed experiment