What recovery scenarios for Marseille Provence airport?

• Marseille Provence airport is badly hit by the coronavirus crisis.
• The leaders of the infrastructure consider that air traffic departing from Marseille could start again gradually from the end of May.
• The airport, currently "dormant", is implementing new health security measures.

A perfectly blue sky: nothing extraordinary, at the end of April, in Marseille. What is rarer, however, is that it is empty. Only the birds still fly over the Marseille city: air traffic is almost stopped at Marseille Provence airport. The Marignane site, "dormant" since mid-March, receives only five flights a day. Against 150 in normal times ... For Philippe Bernant, Chairman of the Management Board, the coronavirus pandemic constitutes an "unprecedented crisis": "We have lost almost all of our turnover and we are consuming around seven million euros in cash per month. "

Passenger numbers were down 99% from April 2019 and cargo activity, which had held up in March, fell by half in April, due to the general economic stoppage. Three-quarters of airport staff are therefore on work stoppage (technical unemployment, sick leave, RTT). But the leaders of the infrastructure "think more and more of the recovery", according to the director of operations Denis Corsetti.

Flights on sale for early June

When will it take place? "We have no certainty: the pessimists of one day are the optimists of the next," sighs Patrice Escorihuela, the chief financial officer. Julien Boullay, responsible for the commercial sector, notes that “the big companies put flights on sale for the end of May at the beginning of June. As of May 11, Air France could increase frequencies between Marseille and Paris (one flight per day currently). Volotea, EasyJet and Vueling also planned flights in early June. "But that does not mean that they will really do it, they can still cancel" according to ministerial decisions, specifies Julien Boullay.

If in doubt, the airport must still design a new health security system. Philippe Bernant recommends "that the wearing of a mask be made compulsory for passengers", even if it means setting up a system of "kits" for sale at the airport. The President of the Marseille Provence Airport Management Board estimates that the infrastructure will have to acquire around 150,000 masks to last until the end of 2020.

Convicted seats and plexiglass windows

"We will comply with the measures imposed by the Regional Health Agency, but we have already looked at what was done in Asian airports," says Denis Corsetti. Ground markings, every 1.5 meters, are being deployed at the airport. The VIP lounges, children's games and restaurants will remain closed. In the boarding lounge, one seat out of two will be condemned and Plexiglas plates are being installed to protect employees.

While Marseille Provence Airport fears a lasting drop in traffic until 2021 (-15 to -20% feared), it hopes for a "shock of confidence" thanks to strict health security measures and possible technological innovations - contactless , new materials ...

In the longer term, the airport plans to "develop contactless" and "is thinking of new materials, because some viruses stay shorter on certain surfaces", Denis Corsetti develops. But the future remains unclear: some airlines could go bankrupt this summer. Especially since customers will probably be reluctant to get back on a plane after this health crisis.

"Each forecast makes us revise the previous one downwards"

"Affinity traffic will resume quite quickly because people will be in a hurry to see their relatives, hopes instead Julien Boullay. This will be an asset for Marseille airport given the number of communities represented in the city. "Faced with plummeting graphs, the commercial director remains cautious:" Each forecast makes us revise downwards the previous forecast. "

Traffic suddenly collapsed in mid-March at Marseille airport. - AMP

To date, Marseille airport is counting on 5.6 million passengers in 2020, compared to 10.2 in 2019. This drop in traffic will not completely jeopardize the airport modernization and development plan, launched in 2017. “We are going to try to preserve our core airport project, which consists of combining operations between the two terminals to achieve a single entry route,” ambitions Philippe Bernant. On the other hand, the project to build a boarding pier for long-haul flights, notably the A380s, “will undoubtedly be postponed. The aviation sector will indeed transform. And according to the president of the airport management board, the French will have to “understand that flying is not a trivial act. "

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Airport calls for state aid

"We expect the state to assume the costs of security measures," asserts Philippe Bernand. They represent 39 million euros per year for Marseille Airport. "These are sovereign missions which are normally those of the State and which it has delegated for practical reasons", argues Philippe Bernand. They are usually paid for by passengers through a ticket tax paid at the airport.

• Coronavirus
• Containment
• Transport
• Economy
• Plane
• Airport
• Marseille