Lyon and Nice airport privatisations – lessons to be learned from the events at Toulouse

The recent privatisation of France's Toulouse Blagnac Airport reignited interest in French provincial airports. Despite a longstanding intention to partially privatise a number of the bigger ones a series of economic and political events had thwarted that intent.

When the Toulouse deal was eventually completed it was a consortium of Chinese companies that was successful, to the surprise of many in France, and the chagrin of some. Now the next two airports - Lyon Saint Exupéry and Nice Cote d'Azur - are about to be privatised and there is considerable interest from a variety of investors and operators.

This CAPA report looks at the respective value of each airport as far as it can be ascertained and at who has declared an interest in it. It also seeks to apply lessons learned from the Toulouse deal.