Press release July 2012
New long haul routes; Passenger trafic up 14%
Latest Marseille Provence airport Press Release:
New long-haul routes; Passenger traffic up 14%.
Marseille-Provence Airport (MRS) has relentlessly expanded its air services. From 51 direct scheduled routes in 2006, the airport now offers 120.
Passenger traffic at the airport is set to rocket in 2012 to over 8 million, after linear growth during the past 8 years.
XL Airways has just announced that it is to base an Airbus A330 at MRS to operate long-haul flights. This is a ground-breaking development at a provincial airport.
2012 passenger traffic: 3.9 million passengers so far this year (+14.3%). This is one of the highest traffic increases at a major European airport.
The route network has expanded substantially since last year with about thirty new direct routes. But the best news is how the public has reacted! Travellers from Provence and Marseille are taking advantage of this extended scope to travel more. And increasing numbers of tourists are flying into our area (Europe's Capital of Culture in 2013).
Meanwhile, the airport continues to extend its catchment area by improving travel to the airport on the ground. In 2012, over 1 million passengers will travel to Marseille-Provence Airport on public transport (bus, train). Most recent innovation: a bus route in high season between Marseille-Provence Airport and Saint-Tropez.
Inspired by these leaps and bounds in traffic levels, Marseille-Provence Airport continues to seek further routes to add to its network.
On this front, after all the new services announced since the start of the year by Air France, Ryanair, Vueling, and more recently British Airways (moving its Marseilles flights from London Gatwick to London Heathrow from November 2012), XL Airways has just announced a major and unprecedented step at Marseille-Provence Airport: the airline is to operate new direct long-haul flights to the Indian Ocean (Reunion Island and Mayotte) and the Dominican Republic from December 2012, and will base an Airbus A330 here from April 2013 to enrich its schedule with further long-haul destinations. Details to be released this autumn … watch this space!