Paris airports: billions of euros to meet the expected increase in traffic

The manager of these facilities, Groupe ADP (formerly Aéroports de Paris), defends "historical investments" necessary to preserve the competitiveness of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG) and Orly against foreign competition and the quality of services provided to airlines and their customers.

The proposed economic regulation contract (CRE) with the State for the period 2027-2034 is a document that sets the budgetary trajectory of airports for the operation of aeronautical activities, and therefore the level of fees paid by the companies.

ADP mentions an average increase in tariffs of 2,6 points more than inflation each year over eight years, assuring that they would thus remain in the "low" range of those of comparable European airports.

When contacted by AFP, the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (Fnam), the voice of the companies present in France, stated that they agreed on "the need to make investments that would guarantee a good quality of service to the airlines and their passengers".

The CRE negotiation "must be an opportunity to ensure that the level of royalties is justified and sustainable for the companies," the organization added.

The contract, which by law must be "just barely profitable", will have to be approved by the Transport Regulatory Authority (ART). It does not cover the unregulated parts of airports, such as the operation of shops or parking lots, or ADP's flourishing international activities.

In May 2020, in the midst of Covid-19 which had torpedoed global air transport, ADP had requested the termination of the CRE of the time, noting the impossibility of meeting its commitments.

Almost six years later, the airport facilities in the Île-de-France region have still not recovered their pre-pandemic traffic levels, with the first ten months of 2025 seeing 98,5% of the number of travelers in the same period of 2019. This trend is weighed down by CDG, France's leading airport.

The demolished Terminal 2G

Once the health crisis had passed, the growth trajectory of Parisian airports flattened, with ADP now estimating it at 1,6% more passengers per year until 2034 compared to 2,3% between 2005 and 2019, also a consequence of the rise of competing connecting platforms, in Turkey or in the Gulf.

But according to their operator, the facilities, which saw a total of 103,4 million passengers in 2024, must nevertheless "continue to develop to support" this growth. The CRE mentions a total capacity increase of 18 million passengers.

ADP claims to have heard the concerns of local residents worried about the nuisances and speaks of a "restrained and progressive" industrial project, with "proposed developments (which) largely fit into the existing environment".

In practical terms, one of the first projects would be the transformation of Terminal 1, a circular, exposed concrete building inaugurated in 1974, where new border crossing areas would be created. Terminal 2E, the departure point for many Air France long-haul flights, would also see improvements to passenger flow.

In the longer term, ADP notably wants to create a "new international boarding hall of 28.000 m2" in the east of CDG, close to the current Terminal 2G which will eventually be destroyed.

For its international connecting passengers, ADP wants to emphasize seamless travel. The solution would come from a new train linking all the boarding areas of the airport, eliminating the need for passengers to go through security again.

And the manager also wants "a new intermodal hall" at the SNCF station of CDG2, which is expected to see its traffic double to 30 million passengers in 2030.

On Monday, ADP had already announced a "simplification shock" to come in the names of its CDG terminals, renamed with a single digit, from 1 to 7, instead of the current nomenclature of numbers and letters which disoriented some passengers.

This development will take place in March 2027, the scheduled date for the inauguration of the new "CDG Express" line which will connect the airport to the center of Paris in 20 minutes without stopping.