Au Revoir Mr Bordeaux!
One of the most-recognised faces of the airport route development community is hanging up his new route business case slides and moving onto new challenges, as Jean-Luc Poiroux, SVP Business Development at Bordeaux Airport steps down after 15 years. Speaking to Air Service One correspondent Marco Colombo at the 149th IATA Slot Conference this week, Poiroux confirms that he is passing on the route development baton to Cyrielle Clement, now Head of Route Development at the French airport.
Clement, a former Paris resident, is one of more than 90,000 people moving to the Atlantic Ocean region for a healthier lifestyle and thriving job opportunities – a useful statistic. “Cyrielle will continue to work with the airport’s portfolio of airlines to bring traffic back to pre-covid levels,” suggests Poiroux. Despite it being his last route development event, the industry veteran enjoyed the vibe in Rome. “Being here in person is much more pleasant than the virtual meetings. Nothing beats the buzz of facing clients and meeting your colleagues. Our job is driven by our passion and desire to share our destination, and it is so much easier in a face-to-face environment.”
Emerging from the pandemic Bordeaux has like so many other airports faced multiple challenges with the #1 being market uncertainty. “During this period, we lost 40% of its passengers and the lucrative Bordeaux – Paris Orly route as part of the Government’s environmental focus on domestic flights.” Poiroux remains confident on the airport’s recovery. “With Orly we lost 600,000 passengers. Yet we are in very good shape, our domestic network is very strong, and the European network is catching up.”
Fresh thinking
He confirms that the pandemic has brought new ways of thinking. “Markets are changing with leisure travel leading the way. People now travel in November. They want to see different things. Our Eastern Europe destinations are a surprise,” concludes Poiroux.