HUH? It's an older airport but seems OK. More importantly, it's in a good location, very close to downtown, plus you can get beautiful views as planes takeoff and land. There's also helicopter service to Monaco, etc. for those who want or "need" it.

NCE is unusual in that it's primarily a leisure destination yet is high yield.

Agree with everything else in your post but at the risk of going ot, despite popular belief, Nice airport traffic is actually 50-50 business and leisure. It’s one of the leading areas for research, high tech (including the historical hq for ibm’s European research, and of course Amadeus) and is also one of Europe’s main conference and trade destinations. [\patriotic hat off... ;) ]

Are you sure about this? If we are thinking about mainland Europe I would say it's probably actually a minority of outstations where BA provides Fasttrack access and in some cases only for CE passengers, not status passengers. However, I appreciate that your view will be skewed based on the locations you travel to most frequently.

Has the tram service started yet from the airport?

I would how much it actually costs in some airports.

The only airport that I know of that publicly states their fast track security charge is Helsinki which is €2 per person.

Yes for about a year. Right now it ends at avenue Jean Medecin (near place Massena), the full route, all the way to the harbour will be in service from 14 December.

Line 3 (up the Plaine du Var to and past the stadium) will be operational in 2020.

A good comparison is VCE, fast track and great lounge, no bus to the aircraft, a far better experience.

Indeed. For instance, I think BRU only has it for C but not GCH. It seems to be very ad hoc.

It's a bit annoying, but personally I mind it much less than BA not paying for lounge access where it exists.

Thanks, will do some research.

I am really surprised by your 50-50 statistics. Do you have a source? Does it apply to all pax at NCE or just BA?
That being said, it is true that Cannes (and to some extent Nice) is a leading venue for conferences and seminars.
T2 (AF, Easyjet, DL, EK, SU) has become a very nice terminal, but I find T1 not very pleasant.

And an extremely handy alternative to NCE....

:confused:

It was in the Nice airport stats about the air traffic being 50-50 leisure/business, so not for BA only (which I suspect has more personal/leisure than average if only given the number of regular commuters with secondary homes), and I suspect outgoing is a bit more business-oriented and incoming a bit less. Overall visitors on the Cote d'Azur are roughly 20% business-80% personal+leisure but that includes cars, cruises, and coaches all of which are almost 100% leisure (and cars is the biggest influx by far) and train which is also more leisure oriented given the paucity of fast train links into Nice.

Nice is actually a significantly larger venue for conferences than Cannes, the second after Paris in France. Cannes has a few iconic ones like the MIPIM in March, but some of Nice's regular annual congresses notably in the health field (medicine, pharmacy, etc) actually add up to more. Monaco also has a number of significant congresses.

PS I don't think we should get too OT though!

I'm not sure why VCE would be a particularly apt comparison apart from the similar airport codes, but more importantly, your summary above is actually incorrect. There are busses at VCE too, and in fact a higher proportion of BA flights get them, especially in the summer when several of the BA flights from LCY/LHR/LGW have overlapping times (LCY/LGW in the morning, LGW/LHR in the evening). NCE has a lot more BA rotations and typically the same absolute number of them using bus gates (either 1 or 2 a day in peak summer mostly).

I actually absolutely love VCE airport, so certainly don't expect me to criticise it. Like you, I really love the lounge with its open terrace (but that's very unusual in Europe, though there are a few similar examples in Greece/Cyprus), which is a wonderful place to sip a spritz, and obviously heading to the city with vaporetti is magical. I also enjoy the "DIY connections" which are fun.

That said, getting to the city be it by public or private transport takes at least three times longer. It is also massively more expensive. Public transport to Venice costs €15 whilst in Nice, both bus and tramway will cost you €1 per trip if you buy a carnet of 10 (available at the bus kiosk just outside of arrivals) or €1.50 if you just buy a single on the spot. Typical uber to Nice city centre will cost you between €10 and 18 and take 10-15 minutes, whilst any private transport in Venice will leave a serious dent to your bank account.

Nice also has two different types of fast track (again, it's only that BA choose not to pay for it but that's not the airport fault), and unlike VCE, you get lounges in every area, which means that you don't have to double guess how long immigration will take and cut your stay short as is the case in Venice where the lounges are only in the Schengen area.

I’d like Summer BA flights to TLN with fast track, but it’ll probably not happen.

Thanks for the further interesting information regarding VCE. I’ll lower my expectations regarding bussing when I next visit. I’ve had recent experience at both NCE and VCE and VCE was so much better.