Quite John. The notion of a €36 each way flight then potentially spending considerably more on a cup of awful coffee and a stale cake plus a tacky souvenir at either end seems absurd. After all, attractive cafés and shops do that consistently as their survival proves, despite the high likelihood that people will protest along the lines of 'Me. No, never...' despite the fact their suggestions are that facilities be upgraded which would suggest they are discontented users. Sometimes it is all rather anachronistic entering into such discussions.
Now a confession. I leapt in writing 53000 passengers in 2014, leaving out a zero. I kept of repeating myself, despite the fact that up to 2000 a day in the peak season makes that absurd mathematically. It just goes to show that I too am a total t**t as well on occasion. It should have been approximately 530,000 and it appears the department's big worry is that that is a sharp drop from the previous 610,000 with a negative prognosis for this year that is being put together with the debts the airport is accruing and the general drop in tourist numbers this year. A representative of the Conseil Général spoke about that in a radio interview yesterday, but since I was driving in a fast moving queue and had to concentrate of that, I did not have opportunity to note anything about where what he was saying is sourced from. It is, it seems, simply part of a bigger picture about tourism.
Still the same answer. If the airport needs to survive financially the money needs to come directly from the passengers or the local tourist industry who hope to gain from their presence. Renting out space for tacky cafes, overpriced restaurants or unnecessary shops is not the way forward. People use budget airlines to save money not to throw it away on unnecessary purchases.
Quite agree John but the whole point is that just because it's an airport it doesn't have to be 'just' an airport. The proprietors of the restaurant at Poitiers Biard made their living from the locals. The airline passengers with their sarnies & cups of tea were a handy sideline. It's bit like eating in a restaurant in a golf club and not actually playing golf etc etc. I was once invited for a business lunch in La Rochelle. My host booked a table at the local tennis club, he wasn't a member and didn't even like tennis but the resto was good so locals wuld reserve their midday or evening meal. The point is, when faced with losses any business should look to diversify to help make it pay.
From my experience the French (generalising here) are not great entrepreneurs which is a pity cos' they are missing so many tricks.
The restaurant at Poitiers may still be good, I don’t know. I have never stayed there long enough to find out. When my visitors arrive or leave they often express an interest in eating in the town itself but are never keen to hang around at the airport.
About 25 years ago Poitiers airport did have a very nice restaurant in the old terminal. Locals would book at lunchtime to eat there. I'm sure the bulk of their business came from locals who used it as a 'local' resto rather than just a facility of the airport intended for passengers and friends using it as the airport. Things change of course and my last visit a few years back revealed it now to be a just a glorified snack bar..
Why? People have no interest in stopping any longer than they need to. There are plenty of cafes, artists and wine to be found in the beautiful surrounding areas.
I read local newspapers thank you, they have kept up with O'Leary and Bordeaux because actually nobody wants to see the airport go. I think a fair number of us are aware of the every other day flights from Bordeaux to Stansted, but there is never anything in the newspaper reports about destinations. Ryanair said they wished to reinstate the Morocco Fez route, but not at Bergerac where it was a dismal failure, at the time it was ended. It may be that the man is trying to negotiate other routes, which given Ryanair's ambitions would be quite plausible. The passenger numbers for 2014 are the published ones, thus 53,000 and some for all flights in and out of Bergerac, not just Ryanair, unless of course the Conseil départemental de la Dordogne use false figures on the transport statistics.
Also, Barbara does not have a café. Her establishment serves high quality food that per person is probably comparable with the fares many budget travellers pay.