Description of the airport
Located on 553 hectares, 7 kilometres North of Paris, Paris-Le Bourget is the leading business airport in Europe. With its three runways and parking areas, it can accommodate all types of aircraft.
Paris-Le Bourget is also an important centre of the aviation industry: some thirty buildings accommodate more than 100 maintenance firms, aircraft equipment and facilities, and airport services. The ongoing operations of the airport generates more than 3,500 direct jobs. The number of aircraft and helicopter movements totalled approximately 54,971 in 2013.
Awareness of the Paris-Le Bourget airport is enhanced by its proximity to the Paris-Le Bourget Exhibition Park, which hosts every two years, in particular, the International Aviation and Space Salon ( IASS). In 2013, 315,000 visitors gathered there. It has hosted 2,200 exhibitors from 44 countries.
The Paris-Le Bourget airport is a major focus of the Group's property business and a large share of property income of the Paris-Le Bourget is closely linked to business aviation.
Regulatory constraints
To reduce noise pollution for local residents, takeoffs of jet aircraft, the use of reverse thrust devices and the use of runway 2 by planes of more than 5.7 tons are prohibited between 22:15 and 6:00.
The market for business aviation
Business aviation is used both as a professional tool by companies as well as by individuals under three complementary forms:
- the business aviation market, where transport companies upon demand lease aircraft "taxis" with their crew for the duration of a flight, and for which the cost of travelling depends on the type plane and the number of flight hours
- business aviation timeshares, in which a company acquires a share of a plane corresponding to a certain annual volume of flight hours
- aviation business called "corporate", in which a company has its own fleet and employs its own crews for its unique needs
Strategy of the airport
The strategy of the airport is built around an offer of high-end services to business travellers to help accommodate an important growth of business traffic and stimulate local economic activity. The market for business aviation offers significant growth opportunities with the emergence of new products and services, the economic development of Eastern European countries (which are not well served by commercial airlines) and an increase in the performance of business aircraft.