the company widens its losses in 2023 and is banking on the Olympic Games for 2024

The group’s results were “penalized by the high level of inflation”, declared its CEO, Jean Castex.

Despite a recovery in its activity in the Paris region, RATP remains in the red in 2023, for the second consecutive yeardue in particular to the rise in energy prices and the poor performance of its subsidiaries, according to results published Friday March 8. The management is now banking on the success of the Olympic Games, during which the efficiency of transport will be particularly scrutinized.

The year 2023 ended with a net loss of 109 million euros for the public transport group, larger than the 26 million in 2022. Turnover increased by 7.2% for reach 6.5 billion euros.

The Public Industrial and Commercial Establishment (Epic), which brings together the historic heart of the group’s activity, that is to say Parisian transport, generates a small profit of 18 million euros, thanks to an extension granted at the end of the year by the transport authority Ile-de-France Mobilités and exceptional aid from the State for financial damage suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rising production costs

“If our results remain, as in 2022, heavily penalized by the high level of inflation, particularly on the price of electricity, the underlying trends are encouraging”wanted to put the group’s CEO, Jean Castex, into perspective, insisting on the Epic’s balanced accounts and the recovery of the transport offer. The RATP underlined “the massive impact of inflation on production costs (+396 million euros)”.

In Ile-de-France, passenger traffic continued to rise in 2023 after the shock of the pandemic (+4.3%). The return to the pre-Covid offer in the metro, the recovery of the bus offer, as well as the rebound in tourism thanks, in particular, to the Rugby World Cup have contributed to this. Despite everything, ridership in Parisian transport remains down 14% compared to 2019. Strikes against pension reform and riots at the beginning of July slowed down the return of travelers.

For 2024, RATP has not communicated financial objectives. But she obviously has her eyes turned towards the Olympic Games, organized in Paris from July 26 to August 11. “The RATP group will face major challenges in 2024”assures the company, this “which will involve exceptional mobilization of the company to ensure the reception and transport of spectators to the Olympic sites”.