Paris airports operator Groupe ADP has reached agreement with the French state on the financial structure needed to support an €8.2 billion infrastructure programme at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly. The deal follows proposals ADP put forward in December and is intended to provide the economic basis for an eight-year industrial project aimed at improving the competitiveness of the two airports.
According to the company, the framework assumes annual traffic growth of 1.9%, total investment of €8.2 billion and a route to annual cost savings of €140 million by the end of the project scope in 2034. ADP chief executive Philippe Pascal said the arrangement balances investment, competitiveness and a fair return on capital employed, which he said would average 5.8% over the life of the agreement. He described it as the largest investment programme ever undertaken in Paris and said it would strengthen the role of the airports as major national assets.
Three phases of work across the airports
The investment plan is divided into three stages. From 2027 to 2030, the focus will be on making the passenger journey smoother, including expanding border-control capacity and updating security screening. In the early years of the next decade, the second phase will concentrate on increasing capacity by better using and densifying existing infrastructure. A third phase beginning in 2032 is set to add new capacity gradually and improve intermodal links.
ADP said it is now moving through the remaining regulatory steps, with the aim of bringing the agreement into force at the start of 2027. A further consultation with airlines is scheduled for September, and a final agreement is expected to be signed in November. Air France-KLM has publicly backed the plan, saying it needs greater efficiency at its Charles de Gaulle hub and that the framework gives the visibility required for modernisation investments. The airline, which accounts for around half of airport activity at CDG, said the programme targets passenger and aircraft flow optimisation, a simpler passenger journey, more contact stands, faster decarbonisation and better links with the railway station.
The announcement came alongside ADP’s first-half results, which showed net profit rising to €312 million from the same period a year earlier, while revenue increased 1.6% to €3.2 billion. Passenger traffic across the two Paris airports rose 0.5% to 51.6 million, and ADP now expects full-year traffic at CDG and Orly to grow by a similar amount, below its earlier forecast range of 1.5% to 2.5%. Across ADP’s wider airport portfolio, which includes airports such as Antalya, New Delhi and Hyderabad, passenger numbers were up 0.2% to 179.2 million in the January-June period.
Source: flightglobal.com
