Paris: Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport has strived to remain relevant in the face of fierce competition from megahubs in Europe and especially the Middle East.
Better known as "Roissy" to the French, the gateway airport to France has been spending hundreds of million of euros in an extensive makeover to retain its powerful hub status.
"When someone wants to travel from Caracas to Beijing, there is a choice of 10 or so air hubs in between to catch a connecting flight," said Augustin de Romanet, chairman and chief executive of Groupe ADP, which runs civil airports in the Paris area.
The options include London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt, Istanbul Ataturk, Dubai, Doha Hamad and Abu Dhabi.
The large airports in Gulf states are seen as posing a threat to Paris-CDG with their sprawling facilities supporting their rapidly growing flag carriers that are building global networks around their home bases in the desert.
"Global air traffic is expected to almost double over the next 20 years, so we have to make sure our slice of the cake does not get smaller," said Mr de Romanet in an international media briefing.
In its latest projection, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) expected 7.2 billion passengers to fly in 2035, more than double the 3.8 billion air travellers in 2016, based on a 3.7% annual compound annual growth rate.
Groupe ADP has been collaborating with its natural partner, Air France, to transform Paris-CDG, which has not had the best reputation in terms of passenger experience.
The airport ranked rather poorly in several surveys in the past.
In 2009 it was rated the second worst in the world by frequent fliers after London's Heathrow, and in 2011 CNN's travel site judged it "the most hated airport in the world".
However, Paris-CDG's ranking in the world's preferred airport charts has consistently improved the past few years as it began to seriously address deficiencies.
It captured 10th place in the list of best airports handling more than 50 million passengers a year in the 2016 World Airport Awards held by the UK-based aviation consultancy Skytrax.
The hall leading to Instant Paris, an expansive French-style lounge dedicated to transit passengers at Paris-Charles de Gaulle. photos by BOONSONG KOSITCHOTETHANA
Key to boosting Paris-CDG's hub competitiveness is its recently opened lounge, known as Instant Paris, over a floor area of 5,000 square metres dedicated to international transit passengers, free of charge.
The lounge offers passengers with at least a three-hour stop a moment of relaxation in a contemporary Haussmannian atmosphere reminiscent of a traditional Parisian apartment.
The spacious area houses an 80-room YotelAir hotel, a restaurant called Naked, free services such as a family room with a Kapla play area, a library and a live arena.
Given that nearly a third of all passengers passing through the airport each year are those transiting internationally explains the priority of Groupe ADP initiative.
Another priority is a €550-million (20.3 billion baht) investment over the next five years for a massive new automatic baggage sorting system that will go a long way in tackling what Mr de Romanet reckoned as Paris CDG's "weakest point" in the passenger experience.
Phase one of the baggage handling system development, capable of carrying up to 15,500 pieces an hour at Terminal 2E, reserved for Air France and its SkyTeam alliance airlines, is under way and scheduled to start operation next year at a cost of €224 million.
Groupe ADP has also moved to tackle the lengthy passport control time, another frequent complaint at the airport, which Mr de Romanet attributed partly to tighter security checks after terrorist attacks.
"It is true we should promote automatic border control systems," he said.
Mr de Romanet said the group has decided to invest millions of its own funds to install facial recognition systems to speed up immigration checks rather than waiting for the French government, which is supposed to bear the costs. A first set of 45 units will be available by June this year and are expected to be fully operational next year.
Air France has made a serious effort to make itself more appealing to passengers at Paris-CDG, which it deemed its hub two decades ago after the inauguration of flights to Geneva on March 31, 1996.
Air France chairman Jean-Marc Janaillac emphasised the top priority is pursuing digital solutions to enhance the passenger experience at Paris-CDG, including as follows:
24/7 self-service kiosks for printing board passes or baggage tags
58 automatic baggage drop-off counters that take 30 seconds to use
56 self-boarding gates that can board an A320 jet with 178 passengers in 12 minutes
2,500 tables used by Air France ground staff to provide customers with a quick and personalised response anywhere in the airport
Dedicated free WiFi offered at all Air France lounges, in addition to free WiFi available throughout airport.
The airline is also constantly upgrading its premium passenger lounges at Paris-CDG, with the ninth lounge due to open next month.
Mr Janaillac stressed the importance of the airline constantly "re-inventing" itself and consolidating its position at Paris-CDG hub.
Air France handles about 100,000 passengers daily at the airport with 25,000 weekly connection opportunities, all handled by 6,500 airline staff.
Last year Paris-CDG remained one of the top-five major hubs in Europe, handling 65.9 million passengers.