Nice Côte d'Azur develops a unique "self-connecting" solution and consolidates its position as an alternative to the major hubs

From this summer onwards, it will be even easier and faster to fly from Toulouse or Bergerac to Dubai, Lyon to New York (JFK or Newark) Tunis to Copenhagen or Bordeaux to Doha. In the new structural trend of air transport, driven by travellers setting up their own connections, Nice Côte d'Azur has become the first airport in France to offer Nice Connect, a complete self-connecting solution, designed in-house, independent of any airline or alliance but open to all the online travel agencies who would like to join it. It ensures passengers can travel through its terminals with confidence to connect to its network of more than 120 destinations, nearly 100 of which are international.

Connecting all the flights of every airline

The result of close cooperation between the airport's Lab Digital teams and its partners, Nice Connect will allow travellers to connect flights from any airline, anywhere in the world, via Nice Côte d'Azur which offers more than 120 destinations nearly 100 of which are international.

Thanks to its geographical location, its network of international destinations and its 7 long-haul routes, Nice Côte d'Azur airport represents an attractive alternative to major hubs for stopovers whether on the North-South or East-West corridors. In the summer season, the network developed by the airport represents up to 23,000 optimized connecting combinations per week.

Guaranteeing your peace of mind even when you've missed a connection

Nice Connect integrates services at every stage of your journey and meets the top four expectations of self-connectors: flexibility of flight schedules, time-saving throughout the trip, quality stopovers in pleasant terminals offering a wide range of shops and services, and price.

To ensure maximum peace of mind for passengers, it is backed by a free insurance offer* , guaranteeing passengers who have missed their correspondence are taken care of.

Facilitating connections, whatever they are

According to its estimates, for Schengen/Schengen connections within the same terminal, Nice Côte d'Azur airport can offer an MCT (minimum connecting time) of 40 minutes without luggage or 75 minutes with luggage. For Schengen/International connections, the MCT can vary between 50 and 85 minutes depending on whether the traveller has to pick up luggage or not.

The airport's competitiveness on connection time is due to various assets:

• shorter taxiing time than in the hubs,
• faster luggage delivery time,
• shorter trips between boarding gates, both of the airport's terminals being on a human scale,
• transfers between the two terminals taking less than 15 minutes, thanks to the presence of a tram line and a free shuttle bus.

Once they have arrived at Nice Côte d'Azur airport, passengers having chosen the Nice Connect offer will be guided throughout the journey.

If they connect to the platform's broadband Wi-Fi network, they can access a dedicated tab of the portal providing them with useful information for the continuation of their journey: the luggage conveyor where to collect their suitcases, boarding gate, flight schedules and contact details of the Customer Relations Area, reachable in case of difficulty.

Dedicated signage will indicate the priority points and queues to which they will have access, at no additional cost, for security controls as well as for the passport controls of terminal 2.

In addition, since the integration in January 2019 of the terminals in Apple's Maps solution, passengers equipped with iPhones or iPads can know their exact position in the terminals to locate the various points of interest.

Comfortable stopovers à la carte

To make the most of their time in the terminals, passengers will benefit from a 10% discount in the shops at their disposal.

Totally free, this self-connecting solution has an additional, optional component, integrating à la carte services such as access to a VIP lounge at a preferential rate.

Subsequently, Nice Côte d'Azur airport will offer to transform a stop-off into a genuine "stopover". Alongside the identified trend of self-connecting is that emerging of slow-travelling: tomorrow, travellers who want to do so will be able to choose to stay longer at the airport and benefit from a short stay à la carte to spend a day or a night at Nice and benefit from preferential offers.

World-wide, transparent retailing

To give its self-connecting solution the broadest scope, Nice Côte d'Azur airport has chosen to open it as widely as possible. Independent of airlines or alliances it can be marketed freely and transparently by online travel agencies (OTA) everywhere.

Thanks to a non-exclusive partnership agreement, Kiwi.com, leader on the self-connecting segment, will be the first to market Nice Connect. Effective as of June, the solution will allow passengers to configure their journeys via Nice Côte d'Azur, using the Kiwi.com, Kayak.fr and Skyscanner.fr platforms, all of which highlight the time savings made possible by shorter transfer and stop-off times. In the process, MisterFly.com, already a partner of Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur, will join the movement and offer the solution as well.

"The start-up of Nice Connect reinforces our position as a credible and necessary alternative to the major hubs, as well as our ability to bring some relief to the satured skies of Northern Europe. We are convinced that the future of air traffic requires an increased decentralization of flows for the benefit of the surrounding regions, their inhabitants and travellers who will be offered greater flexibility of connections", according to the analysis by Dominique Thillaud, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur.

*According to the terms proposed by the OTAs marketing the Nice Connect solution