Bordeaux Airport is to become the latest French airport to develop facilities specifically for the low-cost sector after unveiling plans to open a dedicated budget airline terminal next year.
The terminal will become available in May next year and aims to allow turnaround times of 25min. It has been branded 'Billi' -a contraction of 'Bordeaux' and the French term 'illico', meaning 'without delay' -and will cost €5.5 million ($8 million).
Bordeaux Airport chief executive Pascal Personne says that research has revealed a "real need" for a "tailored" product for the budget sector, one which will offer a simple and efficient service.
EasyJet, Norwegian and bmibaby are among the low-cost airlines listed by the airport operator as serving Bordeaux.
Other similar projects have been put forward at Montpellier and other sites in France, while Marseille Airport launched a dedicated budget terminal nearly three years ago. The latter airport pinpoints this facility askey to continued traffic growth so far this year despite the tough market conditions which haveseen traffic slump elsewhere. Passenger traffic at the airport has grown nearly 4% this year with almost a quarter of this now generated through the low-cost terminal.
Source: Flight Daily News
