Aéroports de Paris: the challenge to increase our handling capacity has been met

Aéroports de Paris has a clear competitive edge on the airside, with two runway pairs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and three runways at Paris-Orly. However, we had to face a persistent problem of airport-terminal capacity. To address this issue of terminal saturation, we invested nearly €3 billion, between 2006 and 2010, to build The Galerie Parisienne, the new 2E boarding lounge and the regional terminal 2G. In 2008 and 2009, Aéroports de Paris thus increased the capacity of its airport terminals by approximately 25 million passengers (i.e. the equivalent of Paris-Orly’s capacity).

The future Satellite 4: a showcase facility for our retail strategy

We will bring to completion the optimisation of the SkyTeam hub comprising the terminals 2E, 2F and 2G with the construction of Satellite 4 expected to enter service in the third quarter of 2012. The 100,000m² area of this future 100% international boarding area of terminal 2E will eventually be able to handle 7.8 million passengers per year and up to 16 aircraft docked simultaneously (including seven newgeneration wide-body aircraft such as the Airbus A380), representing an estimated investment of €560 million. Our aim is to offer a unique experience for our customers: the central shopping area, illuminated through an immense glass roof 9m above the floor, will eventually stretch over 6,000m² and will resemble a town-centre square with its shops, restaurants, entertainment and rest areas. We will offer our passengers the opportunity to indulge in a French ‘art de vivre’ moment. We do hope passengers will take these emblematic memories of Paris back home with them.

The renovation of the old terminals at the heart of our future investments

Right next to these recent facilities, built to the highest international standards, some of our airport terminals need to be refurbished to meet the expectations of our passengers and airlines in terms of comfort and service quality. The upgrading of our oldest terminals has already begun. The entire central body of Terminal 1 at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport has indeed been refurbished, without suspending operations, after five years of works that reached completion in March 2009. With improved passenger fluidity and reorganised check-in and security checkpoints, the new areas are larger, better lit and more comfortable. We still have to renovate the seven boarding satellites and areas immediately adjacent to the terminal to ensure that Paris-Charles de Gaulle’s historical terminal is fully rejuvenated by 2015.

Our efforts will now focus on terminals 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D, inaugurated between 1981 and 1993. Terminals 2A and 2C will be interconnected via a central area, thus transforming the two airport terminals into two areas dedicated to check-in and boarding. 2,300m² of shops, bars and restaurants will add to the passenger offering. The investment in this project is approximately €71 million with an entry into service foreseen for the second quarter of 2012. Terminal 2B will also be rehabilitated and at the same time, its capacity will be increased (6.5 million passengers compared to 5.4 currently) and passengers will be offered 3,000m² of shops, bars and restaurants. The entry into service of this new Terminal 2B is foreseen for the end of 2015, representing an investment of approximately €105 million.

The future Satellite 4 will increase the capacity of the SkyTeam hub to handle international traffic. This will allow turning terminal 2F into a fully Schengen terminal. For this occasion and thanks to the evolution of security regulations, the pathway that connects passengers will be optimised by the creation of a tunnel between 2E and 2F thus allowing passengers to save time. Incoming Schengen passengers will no longer need to go through the passenger security checkpoint a second time to get to 2E. This change to the security checkpoint circuit is foreseen for 2012, representing an investment of €54 million.

Paris-Orly airport will also benefit from a major renovation programme. At Orly South, the complete facelift of the international circuit was completed in 2010 and Aéroports de Paris is now going to focus its efforts on the Schengen departure area. At Orly West, Halls 3 and 4 will be completely remodelled and grouped into a single zone. The baggage reclaim areas, security screening and immigration checkpoints will also be grouped together, with entry into service foreseen for the end of 2015 and an associated investment of €77 million.

An objective: the quality of service offered to our passengers and the attractiveness of our airports

All of these projects would be meaningless if they were not placed at the service of a continuous improvement of service quality, the attractiveness of our airports and beyond, of Paris. We closely follow the results of our customer satisfaction surveys, conducted each quarter by the BVA Institute, which interviews 4,000 departing and arriving passengers.

Bringing our passenger handling facilities in line with our traffic levels was the first step in this process. This allowed us to immediately improve the overall level of satisfaction, which reached 85.6% in 2009, an improvement of 3.2% with respect to 2007. For Terminal 2E alone, the level of satisfaction is close to 90%, placing it on a par with recent facilities in major international airports. We have also achieved significant progress for ease of orientation (+10 points), seat comfort and availability (+7 points), cleanliness (+5 points) and the presence of personnel and quality of reception (+9.5 points). But we must always do better for a service company such as ours!

And this is the aim of the second Economic Regulation Agreement (ERA), signed this summer with the French government, our regulatory body: An investment of €2.4 billion is foreseen over five years, of which a budget of €750 million is entirely dedicated to service quality. We also have to comply with 10 service quality indicators, backed up by a financial incentive in the form of a bonus-malus system, whilst at the same time maintaining a tariff policy that is attractive for the airlines.

We are not just counting on our investments to obtain improvements: On 1 January 2009, we also created a customer satisfaction division, whose role is to steer and manage service quality within Aéroports de Paris. In charge of a vast corporate programme, this entity is already handling around 20 projects. In terms of corporate culture, we are going to step up the pace by creating a corporate university for customer service and quality before the end of the year, which will be attended by all Aéroports de Paris employees. And to ensure that passengers are also involved in this process, we have just launched a participative website ‘Dites nous’ (‘You tell us’) (www.ditesnous.fr): Our customers have the opportunity to imagine the services they would like to find in our airports and send us their comments.

In the current economic climate and in a very competitive environment, Aéroports de Paris is ensuring that it has all the cards in hand to take advantage of the expected recovery of air traffic.

About the Author

Pierre Graff

Pierre Graff is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and General Engineer of the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées. Over the years Mr. Graff has held numerous positions including Technical Advisor for highway policy, road safety and transport at the Office of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Planning and Transport; Head of Safety and Roads at the Interministerial Delegate for Road Safety; Departmental Infrastructure Director in Essonne; Deputy Chief of Staff to the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Director General of the French Civil Aviation Authority and Chief of Staff to the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport, Housing, Tourism and Maritime Affairs. Mr. Graff was appointed President of the public entity Aéroports de Paris in September 2003, and subsequently Chief Executive Officer of the Société Anonyme Aéroports de Paris in July 2005. In July 2009, Pierre Graff was reappointed as Chairman and CEO at the head of Aéroports de Paris Group. Mr. Graff is also a member of the Economic and Social Counsel, associate president of the European affairs section on the National Tourism Council, member of the national committee for sectors of activity of vital importance, a member of the Board of the Paris transport network (RATP), Director of Gaz de France, which became GDF Suez on 22 July 2008, a Non-Executive Director at SOGEPA (the company running State aeronautical stakes in the aircraft construction company EADS), and SOGEADE, a member of the Board of MEDEF Paris, an Officer of the Legion of Honour and an Officer of the National Order of Merit.