“We will support the development of Rennes Saint-Jacques, starting with the expansion of the Rennes terminal to better distribute traffic from the Grand Ouest”. The words of Edouard Philippe still resonate in the offices of Rennes airport. The then Prime Minister had just announced the abandonment of the controversial project at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. To respond to those who feared that Brittany would remain landlocked or that Nantes airport would be saturated, Emmanuel Macron’s right arm brandished Rennes as the miracle solution. Almost five years after the declarations, the promise is far from being kept.
On the tarmac at Rennes, the orange and white EasyJet Airbus landing for its maiden flight is an excellent signal. Coming from Lisbon, it confirms the confidence of the English airline in this small airport in which it has been established since 2018. At the end of 2021, the low-cost company had already opened a regular connection with Porto before reopening the line to London. Three openings that save Rennes airport from the doldrums. In 2019, EasyJet CEO François Bacchetta described the Breton capital as “a sleeping beauty”. “I love Rennes, it’s always a pleasure to come here. It’s true that she woke up well, ”says Reginald Otten, deputy director of EasyJet in France.
Vueling is gone
After decades of scraping by, the platform took off in 2013 with the arrival of Vueling and the opening of lines to Barcelona, Rome and Madrid. But the Covid crisis passed by and the Spanish company left. Why ? “They got slots [créneaux horaires] at Orly and moved their entire fleet there. It’s an offer they couldn’t refuse,” tries to justify Chivoine Rem, the very young director of the airport.
After breaking its attendance record each year, the platform suffered the full brunt of its shutdown. And the objective of exceeding one million and even 1.5 million travelers has flown away. “We are rebuilding our offer with 11 destinations and 14 lines. We are playing with our qualities: this airport is simple, family-friendly, on a human scale”, continues the director. Hit by the Covid, its platform has regained 70% of its attendance this year, in the average of its competitors. She even lost her line to Casablanca opened “at the worst moment” which died out before she was two years old.
The 1.5 million target is far, very far
But how to explain that Rennes does not benefit from the saturation of Nantes, which had welcomed more than 7.2 million travelers in 2019? “We have enormous potential but it is under-exploited”, insists Hervé Cavalan for years. The president of the Association for the development of Rennes-Bretagne airport (ADARB) believes that it is up to the region to set higher objectives for Vinci and the CCI, shareholders of the structure. “Until 2024, the objective is 500,000 travelers per year and after that, they do not know if they will be renewed. How do you want them to invest? asks the specialist. The latter also tackles the lack of support from Rennes Métropole, which “does nothing” to support its airport. He does not hesitate to ask for the cessation of support for small airports like Quimper or Lorient to focus on the two “big” ones, Brest and Rennes.
To attract airlines, the airport is betting on the tourism and business mix but also on the diasporas. With Lisbon and Porto, EasyJet knows that it will be able to count on the many Portuguese families established in the West. An excellent way to fill planes that could encourage other companies to consider destinations in the Maghreb or neighboring countries. Maybe next spring? “We are working on it,” says the airport manager.