Air freight in France: 2007 was a bad year

Posted on May 16, 2008 by Matthieu Desiderio

Excluding both Paris airports Roissy Charles de Gaulle and Orly, freight activities of French airports went through quite a tough time in 2007. Hereunder lay the 2007 results of eight major freight airports: Paris-Vatry, Toulouse-Blagnac, Bâle-Muhlouse, Bordeaux-Mérignac, Marseille Provence, Nantes-Atlantique, Rennes and Lyon-Saint-Exupéry.

Lyon-Saint-Exupéry: poor results in 2007 but encouraging prospects for the future

In 2007, 146,500 tons were handled, representing a loss of 1% compared with 2006 figures. However the loss is much more significant when examining amounts of freight handled only by plane: 37,000 tons (-9% with regards to 2006). As a matter of fact, the decline is even stronger since these figures encompass freight from French postal services. As freight from La Poste has gone up from 3,750 to 4,250 tons, the actual loss in amount of “pure freight” dropped 11.9% in 2007.

A dramatic shrink has also been observed in freight from express services company: from 32,500 tons in 2006, it diminished to 28,000 tons in 2007, mostly due to changes in the companies’ strategies in Lyon. DHL, UPS, Fedex, TNT and Chronopost (Express branch of La Poste) have all moved toward more freight handled by trucks.

Philippe Bernand, Lyon area airports director, is expecting a 3% growth in freight in 2008. For the forthcoming years, Lyon wants to back up on establishing of new freight operators. Besides, Lyon airport keeps an eye on development of rail freight in the area (e.g. Lyon-Turin line through the Alps) and more specifically postal high-speed trains that would call at Lyon Saint Exupéry rail station. According to La Poste, this is likely to arise by 2009.

Bâle-Muhlouse: the only one up!

The bi-national Swiss-French airport displays the most impressive figure in terms of freight handled solely by planes. In 2007, freight traffic increased 22.3% to reach 44,000 tons. The growth in freight coming from express services companies has also grown 8% to 29,000 tons. General cargo has drastically increased (+63%) to 15,000 tons. This figure appears actually as the main driver of 2007 Bâle-Muhlouse airport growth. This is mainly due to the re-opening in 2007 – after repairing in 2006 – of one runway which allowed port authorities to increase exports (chemical products, automotive stuffs, perfumes, sweets, etc.). Moreover, in terms of freight carried by trucks, the Swiss-French airport is ranked 3rd in France in 2007 – behind Lyon and Lille – with a total of 63,000 tons.

In 2007, turnover reached €75 million and airport authority managed to lower the debt from €12 to €1.2 million, and increase its self-investment capacity to €25 million. Early 2008, the airport announced its strategy in the long-run: by 2020, the airport authority intends to create two additional buildings, one dedicated to the handling of chemical products, and one specifically designed for express services companies – a field the airport is very keen to develop. This ambitious strategy strives to take advantage from automotive, chemistry and food plants that are established in the surrounding area; in particular in the south of Germany and the east of France.

Toulouse-Blagnac: still in the first position despite a slight drop

Toulouse-Blagnac airport shows a decline of 6.5% in 2007 with an amount of freight handled exclusively by plane just above 50,000 tons. This shrink in the airport freight activity can be explained by a combination of several factors:

a dramatic cutback in Europ Airpost’s traffic of newspapers (-43%); Europ Airpost being in 2006, the first-rank operator of Toulouse-Blagnac platform;
a sensible decrease in supply of Airbus plants can also be mentioned;
a shift of freight from air to road; -39,3% of charter flights were mostly transferred to trucks.

Nevertheless, the airport expect to go back above the threshold of 50,000 tons handled in 2008 by relying on an increase in Airbus Industries traffic.

Marseille-Provence: rather good results given the global context

In 2007, traffic amounted 51,500 tons (+3.3%): this figure includes 10,700 tons of freight from French postal services (up 35.8%). Also, Marseille-Provence airport seems to take advantage of UPS recent establishment in 2006. UPS operates flights (3,200 tons in 2007) directly from and to its hub in Germany (Köln). For information, DHL proceeded 4,900 tons (+16%) over the same period.

Still these results are all the more encouraging compared to the other French airports. Furthermore, similarly to traffic in Toulouse-Blagnac airport, Europ Airpost has experienced a dramatic loss in its traffic of about 30%.

According to Marseille-Provence airport’s director, 2008 will be a year of transition, towards further developments. One of the issues to be tackled will aim at improving the whole shipments process, from big to smaller planes. On the ground, this will presumably require to re-design the plane parking spaces.

Bordeaux-Mérignac: fewer and fewer freight handled by plane…

The total airport freight activity remained roughly at the same level: 35,193 tons (+0.8%). However the freight handled only by plane went down to 7,000 tons (-17%). The mixed flights freight-passenger are slowly disappearing from Bordeaux-Mérignac airport. Furthermore, freight provided by La Poste is dropping over the years; 5,363 tons in 2007 (-21%).

However, traffic originated from express services companies such as TNT, DHL or UPS contribute to the growth and compensate those other losses. They can indeed rely on the Bordeaux area consistent economical dynamism. Traffic generated by C-discount, big player in the e-commerce industry, and Quicksilver, the well known clothing company, will be backing up the airports future developments.

Paris-Vatry: let’s wait and see in 2008!

Five companies nowadays operate from this airport, 150 kilometres from Paris: Aigle Azur, Ceiba, Alitalia Cargo, Avient, and since March 31, DHL (see previous Transport Expertise article: DHL in Leipzig: a too quickly implemented scheme?). In 2007, a 1.2% drop was experienced, although turnover grew 17% reaching thus €6.5 million. It is important to note that only 430 tons were carried by trucks from the 37,000 tons handled in 2007.

DHL operations are expected to generate 6,000 tons traffic in 2008. Even though Paris-Vatry airport directors are very cautious about next year’s results, a growth of 20% is anticipated to 45,000 tons. In January and February 2008, the amount of freight handled was over 7,000 tons, up 46% from the same period in 2007.

Moreover, Vatry airport authority is thinking of building another 8,000 square metres air station in 2009, requiring a €10 million investment.

Rennes-Saint Jacques: back to business thanks to UPS and TNT

Despite Chronopost activities cutback, Rennes airport has experienced a significant growth in 2007 with a total of 8,500 tons (+17.7%). TNT’s decision, taken late 2007, to gather its air freight activities in Rennes has played a key role in this growth. TNT managed 3,400 tons (+22%) while its competitor UPS operated 4,400 tons (+28.6%).

In contrast, the amount of freight handled by truck decreased, only amounting 432 tons. In addition to this traffic, nearly 4,000 tons of freight from French postal services are to be taken into account.
In 2008, the airport authority expects TNT traffics to reach 14,800 tons. Also, SDV Logistics International should establish late 2008 in the freight-dedicated zone next to the airport.

Nantes-Atlantique: harder times to come!

In 2007, 11,700 tons (+5.5%) by plane versus 24,800 tons (+12.7%) for road haulers: a sustainable future is far from being achieved. Indeed, after TNT stopped operating on the Porto-Nantes-Lieges link, only remains DHL with two daily inbound-outbound flights to Bordeaux and Brussels.