American visitors take Nice airport to record passenger numbers

Nice Côte d'Azur airport received a record 15.2 million passengers in 2025, as the French Riviera saw another bumper year for tourist activity. 

While domestic passenger numbers decreased by -11%, international flights - already at a significant volume - saw an 11% increase, leading to an overall increase in travellers of just over 3%.

The airport also saw the number of flights increase, reaching 163,000. 

Despite a small (-0.3%) drop in domestic flights, a 4.7% increase in international routes points to Nice becoming a higher priority destination for international flights. 

This included new long-haul flights to Washington (US) and Dakar (Senegal). 

The airport also offers routes to New York, Philadelphia, Atalanta, Boston, and Montréal in North America.

The airport recently received the final green light to complete expansions to Terminal 2, bringing a further increase to traveller capacity. Work is expected to be finished by the end of 2026. 

The airport then expects capacity to reach over 18 million passengers, significantly higher than 2024’s figure of 14.8 million. 

Further growth to tourism industry

The figures come from the 2025 report from the area's tourism observatory, which covers essentially the Alpes-Maritimes department and Monaco. 

The area recorded 13 million people staying overnight – the highest in over a decade – with the average person spending 2.5 nights in the area.

International tourists made up more than 50% of the total visitor numbers for the first time.

The US remained the largest international market, with around 15% of all international overnight tourists being American. The next highest markets were the UK, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia. 

Travellers from other destinations saw strong growth including Turkey (50% increase), Japan (35%) China (30%) and the Middle East (21%).

The number of international tourists flying into the airport has increased 5% since 2019 (the benchmark for pre-Covid travel figures). 

The growth in air traffic likewise came mainly from tourists. Only around 11% of people cited ‘business’ as their purpose for travelling to the airport, a figure which used to represent around 30% of travel to the area.

This in turn prompted economic growth in the hotel industry. Annual hotel capacity reached 66% last year, with overnight stays up 3% – reaching close to record levels seen in 2000 – and revenue per room per night up 7% across hotels.

Hotel capacity increased 3%, as the sector looked to ensure availability for incoming guests particularly in the busy summer season where occupancy rates reached around 85%. 

The number of rooms booked on short-stay websites such as Airbnb also increased by around 6% reaching an annual occupancy rate of over 60%.

The airport also saw a growth in year-round travel, cementing the Riviera as not only a summer destination. Winter travel to mountain resorts is particularly noted as a factor for off-season growth.

The area continues to attract both tourists and new residents, particularly Americans.