1944 to 1955: A veritable infrastructure to serve the air network:

1955

Passengers = 364,077

Aircraft movements = 19,485

-1944: construction of a "hard" runway
-1945: AIR FRANCE launches Paris-Nice
-1946: open to public air travel - 34,267 passengers
-1946-1950: route openings
-1949: 178,339 passengers
-1950: The CCI officially becomes involved in the management of the airport
-1955: definition of the role of CCIs in airport management



The Second World War halted commercial air activity at the airport, but it resulted in improvements to the infrastructure:

A series of projects was scheduled for 1944:

-The length of the airport zone was extended from 750 metres to 1,600 metres. A "hard" runway measuring 1,350 metres was built.

-When it was first brought into operation, the new runway was mainly used to receive American soldiers on leave, visiting the Côte d'Azur to relax. The special programme set up to make travel easy for these visitors and to find them accommodation sparked off tourism in the region once more.

In 1945 AIR FRANCE moved into Nice Airport:

-The Nice-Paris route was inaugurated on 17 October. The flight between the two cities took the Junker 52 five hours.

So great was the route's success that by the beginning of the following year the airline was running two flights per day in 21-seater DC3s. AIR FRANCE then went on to launch further routes:

- Nice - Bastia - Ajaccio,
- Nice - Marseilles - Montpellier - Toulouse - Bordeaux,
- Nice - London,
- Nice - Rome starting in 1948,
- Nice - Algiers.

In 1946 the airport opened to public air traffic under the name "Nice -Le Var". It kept this name until 1955 when the CCI christened it with its current name, "Nice Côte d'Azur". At that time it catered for 34,230 passengers.

The airport's commercial vocation had been recognised and foreign airlines began to add a new destination to their schedules:

-Nice. SAS opened a Stockholm - Copenhagen - Geneva - Nice route, and SABENA a connection to Brussels.

The arrival of these foreign airlines had a revitalising effect on traffic. 178,339 passengers used the airport in 1949, making improvements to passenger facilities an absolute necessity.

A temporary terminal building was brought into service in 1949, the year before the runway was extended to 1,700 metres. The extra space and the added comfort attracted other airlines:

- KLM opened an Amsterdam - Nice - Rome - Athens route,
- SWISSAIR flew Geneva - Nice - Rome,
- BRITISH AIRWAYS inaugurated London - Nice - Rome.

In 1950 PAN AMERICAN AIRLINES flew between Nice and New-York... with stops along the way, naturally.
Up until this time, the distribution of roles in the management of the airport more or less reflected the financial contribution of each party:

-the County Council, the Town Hall and the Chamber of Commerce.

Individual missions were only vaguely defined and each group contributed to investments in the hope of being awarded the management of the airport. But the State stepped in once again, not about to let the Airport slip from its grasp.

As of 1950 a temporary occupation decree authorised the Chamber of Commerce to play an official role in the running of the Airport.

The arrivals terminal in 1950	International departures in 1950

But it was only in 1954 that the CCI was awarded the right to collect all fees and include them in its budget as revenue. The conditions regulating CCI airport concessions were adopted in 1955.

All that remained for the CCI to do before taking over the management of Nice Airport, was to come to an agreement with the State on the duration of the concession.

The luggage retrieval hall in 1950