In 2024, Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur firmly set their sights on the future

With air traffic exceeding 2019 figures, Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur have fully played their part in helping to open up the region, while anticipating future needs and taking concrete measures to reduce their environmental footprint.

In 2024, Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, a significant player in structuring and developing its region, expanded its network to reach a historic high of 122 destinations in 45 countries and a record number of long-haul routes: 5 to the United States, 2 to Canada and 6 to the Gulf States.

"Connecting the Côte d'Azur directly to major regional cities and developing direct routes to international capitals is a responsible way of meeting the transport needs of Côte d'Azur residents and all those who come to visit us. This is what sustainable and necessary air transport is all about", explains Franck Goldnadel, Chairman of the Board of Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur.

In 2024, Nice airport handled nearly 14.8 million passengers across all aircraft types (commercial aviation, business aviation and helicopter traffic), compared with 14.2 million in 2023 (and 14.5 million passengers in 2019).

In more detail, over the whole year, Nice Côte d'Azur's two terminals handled 14.7 million passengers for commercial aviation, compared with 14.1 million in 2023, representing a recovery rate of 102% compared with 2019, with a load factor of 81.2%. This passenger traffic was achieved with 109,455 commercial aircraft movements, compared with 110,866 for 14.3 million passengers in 2019.

General aviation traffic was up slightly by 1.15%. In detail, it rose by 2.5% at Nice Côte d'Azur airport and remained stable at the Cannes and Gulf of Saint-Tropez hubs.

The redevelopment work on Terminal 2 has been extended so that passengers will be able to enjoy a new international departure lounge with a selection of new retail stores and a new airport lounge by the next high season, which will coincide with the UN Ocean Conference. This is the first stage of the project, which will continue in the autumn with the new boarding gates, followed in early 2026 by a new check-in hall, a new baggage sorting system and a new baggage claim hall. This expansion, made necessary by the growth in passenger numbers, should make it possible to increase airport's theoretical annual capacity from 14 to 18 million, thus meeting the requirement to ensure "the airport can grow in a way that is compatible with the demands of air transport and its current and future needs".

In the same spirit of improving service quality, the airport and its partners have committed to a Customer Experience Charter formalising the best practices to be implemented throughout the passenger journey. For the second year, they also joined forces to organise World Passenger Day, an initiative launched in Nice and now taken up by fifteen French, French-speaking and European airports, including Rome.

Finally, the retail offering at Nice airport will undergo a major renovation throughout 2025.

The additional impact study carried out by an independent firm of experts, made public in November 2024, indicates that thanks to trend developments, and despite the increase in the number of aircraft movements, greenhouse gas emissions will be 11% lower in 2034 than in 2024 due to improved infrastructure and increasingly less emitting aircraft. With regard to air quality, the study found few differences between 2024 and 2034 and concluded that the impact of the project on air quality is not significant.

"Between the efforts made by the airport on its own emissions and on some of those linked to turnaround phases, and the efforts made by the entire aviation industry to decarbonise its operations, all the players are committed to reducing the environmental impact of air transport", concluded Franck Goldnadel.

In January, thanks to the support of the European Union and the Banque des Territoires, Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, began work on electrifying all its aircraft stands that were not previously connected to the 400 hertz network via the airbridges. Ultimately, some 6,000 tonnes of COeq2 will be eliminated.

At the same time, with the help of its partners, the airport has speeded up its transition to a totally carbon-free site, by electrifying ramp buses, groundhandling vehicles and ground equipment. At Cannes Mandelieu and Golfe de Saint-Tropez airports, ramp vehicles unable to switch to electric power now use HVO carburation, representing an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions. Cannes Mandelieu airport has also acquired a fully electric refuelling truck, the first of its kind in France.
On the passenger side, the airport has continued to roll out charging points in public car parks, bringing the total to 139 and encouraging the use of low-emission vehicles.

By 31 December 2024, Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur had reduced the emissions under their control by more than 93%, and even by more than 95% for Nice Côte d'Azur airport, compared with the reference year of 2013.

Conscious that reducing emissions also include carbon capture, Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur has continued its policy of reforesting the region, as part of its unprecedented tripartite partnership with the Office National des Forêts and the local authorities closest to its Nice and Cannes airports. 4,800 trees were planted this year in municipalities close to the airports, bringing the number of trees planted since 2020 to 23,852.

Finally, by renewing this year its innovative partnership with Restos du Cœur, which enables passengers to donate products, which cannot be taken onboard and end up being destroyed, to the charity, the airport donated almost 75,000 items to the charity in 2024, an increase of 9% on last year, bringing the total number of donations since the partnership was set up to over 200,000.