Minimalist but efficient. Two adjectives that perfectly describe the essence of Mp2, the terminal in the airport of Marseille entirely dedicated to low cost flights. Inaugurated in 2006, it is considered one of the main points for European “budget” flights.
The Airport of Marseille-Provence is located in Marignane, a town about 25 kilometers from downtown Marseille. A simple and minimalist appearance, Mp2 was originally an ex goods warehouse. Today this grey two-storey parallelepipedon with its plastic orange seats, poor neon lighting, acid green check-in counters and wine-colored walls, has become the hub of thousands of daily travellers. Not only is it simple in appearance, Mp2 does not allow the use of trolley carts. Everything must be carried by hand. Also the flooring is "low cost", simple stone with man-holes in clear view.
It is a “budget” terminal both for design and for the services that it offers to travellers. The latter, like the furnishing, must make do with the basic essentials. The traveller that decides to leave from the airport of Marseille with a low cost flight must weigh his/her baggage by themselves and put them on the conveyor belt themselves. However, there is always someone in charge that checks if the luggage belongs to who registered it. There is also a lack of shops in the airport. No clothes, no handbags or shoes. No outlet. Only a bar selling tobacco products and a shop with typical local products. There is the control room, obviously, but passengers do not have the possibility of boarding their flight directly from the mechanical tunnel found in every normal European airport. The fleet, unlike other European low-cost airports, is like any other ordinary terminal, with one peculiarity: the aircrafts are placed parallel to the terminal in order to limit the maintenance costs. This way it is not necessary to re-position the aircrafts for departure, saving about twenty minutes on aircraft manoeuvres. |
