A new attendance record for Béziers-Cap d'Agde airport in 2023

Philippe Vidal can rejoice in the activity of Béziers Cap d'Agde airport and he is putting forward economic projects linked to aeronautics. Free Midday

La ligne vers Shannon en Irlande a connu un taux de remplissage de 90% cette première année. Midi Libre

Avec 273 297 passagers, l'aéroport de Béziers Cap d'Agde vient de battre un nouveau record de fréquentation. L'aéroport a rattrapé le niveau d'avant la crise sanitaire, mais également dépassé son dernier record datant de 2019.

Philippe Vidal, the president of Béziers Cap d'Agde airport, has reason to rejoice at the latest figures published on airport attendance. With 273,297 passengers transported, a new record has been broken. The tourist tool is thus rising to a level never before reached. A survey carried out among passengers shows that 84% of passengers do not live in France. That 60% of them come to do tourism in our territory. 75% indicate that the existence of the airport in Béziers was decisive in their choice of stay in the region and finally 62% specify that they would not have made this journey without the existence of this airport platform.

Philippe Vidal, the airport's results this year are more than positive. You expected it ?

Indeed, this is a record result since we exceeded the number of passengers transported in 2019 which was a record year. All this, despite the strikes and canceled planes at the start of the year. It has been a really good year and the opening of the 10th line, to Shannon, in Ireland, has achieved great success since we had a occupancy rate of more than 90%.

Does the arrival of these good figures dispel the idea that the airport was a little in danger ?

The figures do not remove the danger since the danger is linked to the management itself of this tool.  The financing of local authorities must be fundamentally reviewed. However, we have additional time to clarify this. The European Union has in fact postponed the deadline to 2028, instead of 2024. We have some respite, but that does not prevent us from working on new solutions as we have already started to do with&nbsp The Agde tourist office. We are studying solutions to find new financial resources that do not come from community taxation. 

What solutions did you find ?

The Agde tourist office replaces, in part, the financing of the Agglo Agde Méditerranée. We continue to explore alternative solutions with other partners. We have also launched a study for a business park. It will be a new economic resource directly at the airport. All this contributes to drastically reducing the share of communities, as recommended by the regional chamber of accounts.

Two hectares will be developed to accommodate businesses on the airport site ?

Yes, that's correct. If all goes well, we will be able to consider expanding this economic zone by an additional eight hectares. We are very clear on this area, we wish to promote, at all costs, the industry linked to aeronautics. It is out of the question to create an additional lambda activity zone. Others know how to do this much better than us. We want to use the proximity of the airport to develop projects.

What type of businesses could there be ?

We had several contacts, including an aircraft maintenance company. We also have an airplane taxi company that has become known. There is also a garage company. Initially, we are looking to launch and finalize the area and then we will go further in the study of this market which seems very promising. We negotiate the services of Via Terra for  assign them delegated project management so that they can then carry out the project. The year 2024 will see the contacts materialize. I think so very strongly. It can go very quickly. As for the number of jobs created, we have no idea because it really depends on the type of business. But whatever happens, it will be a welcome breath of fresh air for the local economy. The future is pleasant if we take into account what the regional chamber of accounts told us. Not listening to them would be a huge mistake.

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