From the land-sea connection to the air-sea connection: the dream of full intermodality in passenger transport in French ports between the wars

With the explosion in passenger transport from the middle of the 19th century onwards, commercial ports were forced to adapt to this new situation by ensuring the interconnection between land and sea. The emergence of commercial aviation after the First World War led the port world to incorporate this new means of transporting mail and the first air passengers into its thinking. French commercial ports are a perfect example of the interest aroused by the aeroplane and the new possibilities for modal exchanges with maritime transport. This craze is taking place against a backdrop in which commercial ports are emerging as innovative areas in terms of passenger intermodality: the launch of the train-ferry between England and Dunkirk, experimentation with the first baggage “containers” on the cross-Channel crossing and, above all, the construction of maritime stations that represent a sort of functional optimum and are not without foreshadowing the future airport terminals. Examination of the technical journals and analysis of the little-known and little-used archives of the Union des Ports de France shows that combined transport projects with aviation and hydro-aviation multiplied during the inter-war period. The seaport chambers of commerce were key players in the development of new airport facilities.