Transport industry in France - Statistics & Facts

In France, many modes of transport are used to carry both goods and passengers: air, road, rail, and sea transport. The amount of freight transported by inland modes of transportation has been growing since 2015. The primary means of transporting merchandise in France is the road, where 168 billion tonne-kilometers where recorded in 2018. Goods moved via roads are expected to generate a revenue of 48.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.

Accounting for more than 80 percent of all passenger movement in 2016, cars are the most common mode of inland passenger transportation. Trains (railway, tram, and metro) made up for approximately 13 percent, while buses and coaches only represented 6.2 percent of modes used. In terms of air travel, the capital’s two major airports of Paris Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly are the largest by passenger volume. The busiest airport outside the Paris region Île-de-France is Nice Côte d’Azur. The airport located in the Mediterranean Sea welcomed more than 11 million passengers in 2017.

France invested a total of more than 18 billion euros in inland transport infrastructure in 2017. Investments in sea port infrastructure amounted to 353 million euros and 801 million euros were invested in airport infrastructure.

In 2016, 358,000 people were employed in road freight transport, and 236,600 people in postal and courier services. With more than 60,000 registered companies, road passenger transport was the sector boasting the most enterprises. All modes of transport combined, the French transport sector generated revenues of more than 206 billion euros.

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