Nice Côte d’Azur Airport : 2021 results and news for 2022
19 January 2022
Despite health conditions and continuing travel restrictions, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport ended 2021 with higher than expected traffic, at 6.54 million passengers, marked by the return of long-haul flights from the summer season. At the same time, and in line with its commitments, the airport continued its efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, obtaining Airport Carbon Accreditation level 4+, the highest level in this field.
2021 results
The year 2021, even if it will remain special because of the ongoing COVID crisis, will have benefited from the many investments made by Nice Côte d’Azur Airport in 2021 to position itself as the airport of tomorrow: an ultra-performing airport, totally safe from a health point of view and a leader in its commitment to reduce its environmental impact.
After the first year of the pandemic, the platform was able to recover, with commercial passenger traffic of 6.54 million passengers, i.e. a rebound rate of 45% compared to 2019, the reference year. This average development masks a disparity between the first half of the year, which was heavily affected by the containment measures and saw an average recovery rate of 23%, and a much better oriented second half of the year, which saw an average recovery rate of 64% compared to 2019. While traffic remained largely driven by domestic routes (69% recovery rate) and Schengen (39.8%), international traffic is showing a proactive return, with almost a quarter of traffic recovery, mainly concentrated in the second half of the year.
“This upturn in passenger traffic, particularly long-haul flights, bears witness to the strength of our region’s attractiveness, the confidence of both airlines and travellers in the health and safety measures implemented, and allows us to be optimistic for the coming year, since we already have a large number of destinations, notably transatlantic, in our provisional flight schedule for the summer 2022 season“, summarises Franck Goldnadel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Côte d’Azur airports.
New in 2022
By the summer of 2022, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport will be connected to 106 destinations and 39 countries by 52 airlines.
Thirteen new destinations will be available next summer, in Europe, Romania, Sardinia, Iceland, but also the United States and Canada will reopen their lines.
Medium-haul network
12 new features are announced, including 2 new companies (in italics) and 4 new destinations (in bold):
- British Airways : Southampton
- Condor : Düsseldorf and Francfort
- Eurowings : Stockholm
- Icelandair : Reykjavik
- Volotea : Cagliari
- Wizz Air : Naples, Belgrade, Tirana, Cluj, Kiev, Lviv
It is also worth noting the return of 3 lines that have not been reoperated since 2019:
- Air Serbia to Belgrade
- Jet2.com to Leeds Bradford and Manchester
Long-haul network
1 new feature and still the leading long-distance offer in France after Paris:
- Summer 2022, long-haul offer estimated at 376 000 seats
- 1 new airline : United Airlines to Newark
- Return of Air Transat and Air Canada
6 scheduled routes :
New York :
- Delta (JFK, 7 weekly flights, from 27/03)
- La Compagnie (EWR, 3 weekly flights from 07/05)
- United Airlines (EWR, 7 weekly flights from 30/04)
Montréal:
- Air Canada (YUL, 3 weekly flights from 13/05)
- Air Transat (YUL, 2 weekly flights from 04/05)
Dubaï:
- Emirates (DXB, 5 weekly flights all year)
Terminal 1 is expected to reopen at the end of March 2022 if traffic forecasts are confirmed.
