ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY OF REGIONAL AIRPORTS OF FRANCE AND REGIONAL AIRPORTS OF THE CENTRAL FEDERAL DISTRICT: DEVELOPMENT OF LOW-COST AIRLINES DESTINATIONS AS A KEY FACTOR IN THE PASSENGER TRAFFIC GROWTH

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the activities of regional airports in France in 2019. The growth of passenger traffic was observed in those airports that actively developed cooperation with budget airlines, increasing the number of destinations in the route network. Regional airports in France, whose route network structure did not expand in 2019, showed a slight decrease in passenger traffic (from –0.1% to –3%). The first and only experimental regional airport in France (city of Beziers), handling flights of only one budget airline, Ryanair, showed an increase in passenger traffic by 14.5% in 2019. The share of routes of budget airlines in the structure of the route network of regional airports in France is quite high. The key problems of regional airports in Russia are the low passenger traffic and the underdeveloped route network. Due to the presence of the only national budget airline "Pobeda" on the market and the minimal impact on the segment of budget air transportation of foreign airlines, the share of budget air transportation destinations in the structure of regional airports of the Russian Federation continues to remain at an extremely low level. 2019 showed a record growth in passenger traffic at regional airports in the Central Federal District (an increase from +2.8% to +262%, with the exception of Tambov Airport, whose passenger traffic fell by 57.4%), which indicates an increase in demand and the need to expand the route network of regional airports. On the example of the Voronezh airport, a model for the development of low-cost airline destinations is presented.