The story
Development of Parisian airports
The company L'aéroport de Paris was created as a établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial in 1945. In 1946, the first provisional terminal at Orly Airport was achieved, as well as the reconstruction of Paris–Le Bourget Airport. In the 1950s, Orly Airport outgrew Le Bourget's traffic, and became the leading Parisian airport, breaking the 1 million passengers/year milestone. Le Bourget launched the first edition of the Paris Air Show in 1953 and switched to business jet operations in 1976.
In 1957, L'aéroport de Paris started to look for a land to build a new Parisian airport. Construction of the airport started in 1966 and Charles de Gaulle Airport officially started its operations in March 1974. In 1976, 20 million passengers flew through the Parisian airports.
During the 1980s and 1990s, L'aéroport de Paris, which became Aéroports de Paris in 1989 and Paris Aéroport in 2016, built new satellites and terminals for the Charles de Gaulle airport (terminal 2, terminal 3). By 1987, traffic in the Parisian airports grew to 40 million. A TGV train station opened within the Charles de Gaulle airport in 1994.
Privatization and modernization of airports
Aéroports de Paris became a public company on 20 April 2005, although the French government retained a majority of the company's shares. In 2008, Aéroports de Paris and Schiphol Group signed a strategic partnership that involved buying 8% of each other's shares to seal the deal. In 2008, French conglomerate Vinci also bought 3.3% of Aéroports de Paris, calling the airport operator "the heart of its strategic aims".
In Parisian airports, the development and consolidation continued. At Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, the inter-terminal train system CDGVAL started in 2007. Terminal 2G opened in 2008 to serve international flights to Eastern Europe. Terminal 2E, Satellite 3 (Hall L) opened in 2005 and Satellite 4 (Hall M) in 2012. A museum opened within the airport in 2013 in Terminal 2E, Hall M. In Orly, a development project voted in 2012 plans to merge the airport's south and west terminals with the construction of an 80,000 m2 building to create one great terminal.
In 2012, Aéroports de Paris and Air France decided to work together towards embellishing the experience in Parisian airports and turn Paris-Charles de Gaulle into a competitive hub for international connections. Aéroports de Paris opened the new Hall M in Terminal 2E in July 2012 (7.8 million passengers/year capacity) which contains 65,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a museum, and Air France's largest business lounge. In November 2014, Aéroports de Paris opened a luxury fashion area in terminal 2E, Hall K of the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. From 2006 to 2015, the number of fine food restaurants grew from 1 to 20 in Paris - Charles de Gaulle Airport, and style fashion brands from 6 to 20.
Subsidiaries and international development
Starting in the 1970s, Aéroports de Paris became an active airport developer in other countries, contributing to the construction of the terminal 1 of the Abu Dhabi International Airport, the terminal 1 of the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the Mohammed V International Airport, the Damascus International Airport, the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport,... ADP Ingénierie was created in 2000 as a fully owned subsidiary to provide large-scale engineering for airport-related development projects.
Through its involvement in airport development projects, Aéroports de Paris became a stakeholder in many airports. ADP Management was created as a fully owned subsidiary in 1991 to consolidate the group's growing participations in airports and other industry-related assets. In 2012, in addition to its existing 8% share, ADP Management acquired 38% of TAV Airports Holding, the leading airport operator in Turkey that used to operate the Istanbul Atatürk International Airport as well as airports in Georgia, Tunisia, North Macedonia, Latvia and Saudi Arabia. ADP Management also acquired 49% of TAV Construction.
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In 2003, Aelia (subsidiary of Lagardère Services) and Aéroports de Paris created the Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire (SDA) to manage the sales of alcohol, tobacco, cosmetics and food within the Parisian airports. In 2011, the company managing duty-free shops in Parisian airports merged with the SDA. In 2011, Groupe ADP and Lagardère Travel Retail also created Relay@ADP to manage bookstores, press and souvenirs stores in Parisian airports.
In 2001, Aéroports de Paris created its own telecommunications operator, ADP Telecom, which became Hub Telecom a year later, and finally Hub One in 2012. In 2006, Hub One was involved in the creation of Bolloré telecom, thus holds minority shares in the company. In 2016, Hub One deployed the free guest wifi network across the Parisian airports.
In 2011, Aéroports de Paris and French JCDecaux created the joint-venture branded JCDecaux Airport Paris to handle the interactive display advertising system in Parisian airports. In November 2016, Paris Aéroport launched a special photo exhibition with the French photographer Dominique Issermann which were exhibited all around the airport through the JC Decaux Airport display advertising system.
In 2015, Aéroports de Paris and Select Service Partner created the company Epigo to manage fast-food shops in the Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Rebranding Groupe ADP/Paris Aéroport
In November 2015, the group's CEO Augustin de Romanet announced ADP's strategic programme Connect 2020. The plan includes a major overhaul of the company's branding organization:
All 3 Parisian international airports (Orly, Le Bourget, Charles de Gaulle) are united under one passenger brand, Paris Aéroport.
All other airport-related subsidiaries of ADP are united under one institutional brand, Groupe ADP.
The rebranding shift became effective in April 2016. The Connect 2020 also planned to follow through with the project to unify Orly South and West terminals. In Charles de Gaulle, Terminals of the Satellite 1 will be merged, as well as terminal 2B and 2D. A new luggage automated sorting system and conveyor under Terminal 2E Hall L to speed luggage delivery time for airlines operating Paris-Charles de Gaulle's hub. The CDG Express, the direct express rail link from Paris to Charles de Gaulle Airport, is planned for completion by 2027.
From Wikipedia’s article on Groupe ADP, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5