French airports rated badly… for food and comfort

Poor restaurants and waiting areas have seen French airports fare badly in a global satisfaction survey – with a list of those welcoming more than 15million passengers putting the two Paris airports in 29th and 31st positions.

Medium-sized airports fared little better with Toulouse-Blagnac being the best performing French site but trailing ninth on a list of European airports that had Porto in Portugal No1.

Paris Orly was rated top airport in France in a survey of 11,000 people run by consumer magazine Que Choisir and consumer groups from seven other countries. However, it was rated just 13.9 out of 20 and was only just in front of Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, which was second bottom with 13.7 (although the quality of its departure boards was rated 15.1).

Passengers criticised poor quality restaurants and bars, uncomfortable waiting areas with too few seats and too few power points to recharge phones and tablets.

However, despite terror attacks in Paris and Nice the country’s airports still increased their passenger numbers, with 3.1% growth in 2016 to 186.3million – with 51% using Orly and Charles-de-Gaulle.

Orly is already making efforts to improve its quality, opening restaurants by Michelin-starred chefs Gilles Choukroun, Michel Rostang and Thierry Marx.

Que Choisir’s look at medium-sized airports saw Toulouse, in ninth with 14.3 points out of 20, ahead of Nice-Côte d’Azur in 12th; Nantes-Atlantique, 13; Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, 15, and Bordeaux-Mérignac 16. The airports were marked up for their “sense of security” but let down again by their restaurants and waiting areas. Marseille-Provence, in 21st place, was marked down for the state of its toilets.

The consumer magazine made a special point of mentioning improvements at Paris Beauvais, which had improved from 11.8 points to 13.1 in three years – a welcome improvement for its four million passengers.