Marseille Provence Airport reveals new look to support future ambitions

Marseille Provence Airport has revealed a new brand, business values and enhancements to the customer experience as part of a major transformation that will position the airport to meet growing and changing passenger demand and prepare itself for the next major chapter in its development with a growth in long-haul services. Details of the project were first revealed by Routesonline at World Routes in September this year.

Located on the Mediterranean coast in South-East France, Marseille-Provence Airport has firmly positioned itself in the minds of the air service development community through its regular attendance of World Routes and regional events and its successful hosting of Routes Europe back in 2014. The airport has taken advantage of its location at the intersection of French rail and road networks to become a key gateway to the South of France, to Marseille and, of course, the famous Provence region.

Over the space of the last ten years, Marseille Provence has strived to expand its air connectivity, growing from 58 direct scheduled routes in 2006, to offer 100 in 2016. The airport is now handling over eight million passengers per calendar year and will soon pass the nine million passenger figure and expects to pass the ten million milestone before the end of the decade. As it shows no signs of relaxing investing a half billion Euros to extend its terminals and to meet the forecasted traffic growth in air travel for the next ten years.

It was among the industry pioneers when it developed the mp² low-cost terminal and this has helped drive the growth in International traffic which has gradually increased from 45 per cent of total traffic in 2006, to 59 per cent today. This growth is likely to become more pronounced over the coming years, as a result of the accelerating development of long-haul flights and the continuing development of low-cost companies.

As a gateway to France’s second biggest city in number of inhabitants, and thus a strong local market, Marseille Provence’s passenger traffic is mainly driven by outbound passengers, which accounts for 60 per cent of its total. However, this number is shrinking closer to 50 per cent as the Provence region is welcoming more and more tourists every year. In addition, Marseille's status as a cruise call continues to generate further long-haul international tourist arrivals, with many itineraries facilitated by air service.

“To guarantee a high quality service for both our customers and operational partners, and to attract airline companies, it has been essential to commit the airport to a major project of modernisation,” said Pierre Régis, chairman of the airport's management board.

“To position Marseille Provence as the model for European regional airports, we have added to the classic investment approach an innovative process of collaboration with our customers who request new services and a new experience,” he added.

With half a billion euros to be invested between now and 2026, this project represents the largest major investment in the airport's history and as such the airport has reached out not just to stakeholders but also its passengers.

“We consulted the economic and tourist stakeholders in the region, but more importantly, the customers of our airport were also able to participate via the collaborative platform ‘Et Si vous transformiez l'aéroport Marseille Provence avec nous’ (‘What If you transformed Marseille Provence Airport with us’),” said Julien Boullay, marketing and communications director, Marseille Provence Airport.

In just a few months, the airport managed to collect over 1,000 ideas, which themselves generated more than 100,000 votes. This has allowed it not only to understand the expectations of its clients, but also to prioritise them.

“Among some of the surprising points, our clients expect the airport to better reflect the image of Provence, so we are going to set up a number of initiatives around this idea of being rooted in the Provence region. From now on, a true revolution will be taking place: a new brand, a new digital experience ahead of the next major actions in architecture and landscaping, and a complete reworking of customer experience at our airport,” added Boullay.

At the core of the development will be a new heart for the airport and a €90 million project to create a new offering in the public area linking the current Halls 1 and 3, to allow it to optimise its operations. An extension to the mp² departure lounge and baggage claim of €10 million will increase the capacity of the terminal building by approximately 1,200 m² from 2019 and will create two additional parking stands.

A €14.5 million improvement and reconfiguration of entrances and roads that started in June 2015 is also due for completion in April 2017. Meanwhile, looking further ahead, an €80 million construction project for a new international boarding pier is planned by 2025.

This investment will support an air service development strategy that continues to bring new operators and routes into Marseille. Research published in 2013, based on the methodology developed by the Airport Council International, estimated the total economic impact of the airport on the region at that time to be €4.36 billion.

This winter there are ten new regular routes on offer from Marseille-Provence, comprising flights from easyJet to Berlin; Meridiana to Milan Linate; Vueling to Algiers; Nouvelair to Djerba and Tunis; and Jetairfly to Casablanca. There are also the extension of summer links by easyJet to Amsterdam and Bordeaux, Ryanair to Malaga, and Volotea to Prague, into the winter schedule.

This all means easyJet will be doubling the number of seats it has on offer compared to last winter, while elsewhere Iberia (Madrid), TAP Portugal (Lisbon), Eurowings (Düsseldorf) and Brussels Airlines (Brussels) willuse larger equipment versus last winter, Alitalia (Rome) will boost frequencies and Vueling (Barcelona), Air France Hop! (Paris and Rennes) will boost capacity on specific routes.

In the long-haul market, a key growth target for the airport, flights continue to Dakar, Saint-Denis de La Réunion, Antananarivo (Madagascar) and Tel Aviv. Three temporary charter rotations are also scheduled for Havana (MSC Croisières) and Pointe-à-Pitre (Costa Croisières) in December 2016, January 2017 and February 2017.

Looking into the summer schedules and Air Canada rouge has already announced plans to introduce flights between Montreal and Marseille from June 2017, complementing the existing offer of Air Transat. Meanwhile, in the short-haul market Volotea has announced new direct flights from April 2017 to Alicante, Split and Vienna, as well as a frequency increase to Faro and Naples following their success this year.