Marseille Airport Layover Without Leaving MRS
Part of the full Marseille Layover: Vieux-Port From MRS
Marseille Provence Airport keeps both terminals open through the night, with most of its shops and food in the glass hall that opened inside Terminal 1 in June 2024, Fernand Pouillon’s 1961 concrete concourse still in use behind it, and a staffed bag desk that shuts at 8pm.
Terminal 1’s check-in hall was rebuilt in 2024
Foster + Partners, working with the Marseille practice Tangram, dropped a 22-metre-high glazed hall into the middle of Terminal 1 and opened it on 17 June 2024, joining Hall A, which takes international flights, to Hall B, which takes domestic ones. The build created 22,000 square metres and renovated 28,000 more, and the structure is 70 per cent recycled steel, roofed in inverted beams spanning 33 metres with a continuous grid of skylights overhead.
For a passenger with hours to spend, what matters is that this is where the density is: check-in, the shops and most of the food now sit in one connected space rather than spread across separate halls with their own escalators. Hall A and Hall B were called Hall 1 and Halls 3 and 4 until the rebuild, and older signage and older directions still use the numbers.
Fernand Pouillon’s 1961 concrete concourse
The building the new hall was inserted into is worth thirty seconds of looking up. Pouillon, who had rebuilt part of the Vieux-Port with Auguste Perret after the war, delivered a 19,000-square-metre terminal here in 1961, sized for three million passengers when the airport was handling a third of that, and built in prestressed concrete in the same technique he used for two stations in Iran. It carries France’s label for remarkable twentieth-century architecture.
The tell is the ceiling: a deep coffered concrete grid, painted turquoise, punched through with square skylights that light the floor without lamps for most of the day. Foster’s hall next door repeats the inverted-beam roof and the skylight grid deliberately, which makes the join between 1961 and 2024 the most interesting thing to walk in the whole precinct.
The bag desk runs 5am to 8pm and no later
Left luggage here is one operator with two positions: the departures check-in area in Terminal 1, and the luggage balance area in Terminal 2. Both open at 5am and close at 8pm, seven days a week, and both are for passengers holding a valid air ticket, so an evening arrival with a morning onward flight has no way to put a suitcase down inside the airport overnight.
Terminal 2, the low-cost hall in a converted cargo building
Terminal 2 opened in 2006 as mp2, France’s first stripped-down terminal built for low-cost carriers, in a freight building converted for the purpose. Ryanair made it their first French base, and it now runs more than 40 direct destinations and close to two million passengers a year.
It reads exactly like what it is: one long low hall, self-service check-in, and a shorter list of places to eat than Terminal 1. Getting there is a signposted walk of about ten minutes from Terminal 1, with a free shuttle covering the same ground for anyone who would rather not, usually within ten minutes of turning up.
The terminals stay open all night, with nothing hot to eat
There are no rest zones or quiet rooms anywhere in the precinct, and no food outlet runs through the night. What is open is the buildings themselves, plus vending machines with snacks and drinks on the ground floors of Hall A and Hall B and at points in Terminal 2. The lounges shut overnight and cap a stay at four hours in any case. A hotel bed sits a few hundred metres from the terminal doors, which for a long overnight gap is worth more than a bench.
Leaving is a separate calculation. The nonstop shuttle bus, line 91, covers the motorway to Saint-Charles station in about 25 minutes, up to 50 when the traffic is bad, at 10 euros for an adult, every 10 minutes from 7am to 8pm and every 20 outside that. The rail version is a free bus to Vitrolles Aéroport Marseille Provence station in 5 to 7 minutes, then a regional train in 25 to 30. Under four hours clear of boarding, the terminals win. Over that, the harbour and Le Panier walk starts from the shuttle’s own city stop.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover at Marseille Provence Airport in Marseille?
Under three hours, stay in the precinct. Terminal 1 is where the shops and food are, in and around the glass hall opened in June 2024 that now joins Hall A and Hall B, and the older concourse behind it is Fernand Pouillon's 1961 building, worth a look up at its coffered concrete ceiling. Terminal 2, the low-cost hall, is about ten minutes away on a signposted walk with a free shuttle if you would rather not. Drop a bag first if you are carrying one: the counter runs 5am to 8pm only.
Where can I leave luggage at Marseille Provence Airport?
At the Bag Mobile counter, which has two positions: the departures check-in area in Terminal 1 and the luggage balance area in Terminal 2. Both run 5am to 8pm, seven days a week, and the service is for passengers holding a valid air ticket. The same counter wraps bags in protective film and tracks each one with its own code. Anything landing after 8pm has nowhere at the airport to leave a suitcase until five the next morning.
Is Marseille Provence Airport open overnight?
The terminals stay open through the night, but there are no dedicated rest or quiet zones and nothing serving hot food. Vending machines with snacks and drinks sit on the ground floors of Hall A and Hall B in Terminal 1 and at points in Terminal 2. The lounges close overnight and cap stays at four hours, so they are not a plan either. A hotel bed is a few hundred metres from the terminal doors if the connection is long enough to want one.
How do you get between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 at Marseille Provence Airport?
On foot, on a signposted path that takes about ten minutes, or on the free inter-terminal shuttle, which usually leaves within ten minutes of turning up. The same free shuttle bus that links both terminals to Vitrolles Aéroport Marseille Provence station takes 5 to 7 minutes and runs to the train timetable.
Is it worth going into Marseille on a short connection?
Only with four hours or more clear of boarding. The 91 shuttle bus runs nonstop from the terminal to Saint-Charles station in about 25 minutes, up to 50 in heavy traffic, at 10 euros one way, every 10 minutes from 7am to 8pm. A three-hour gap is spent almost entirely on the motorway and in the check-in queue afterwards. With five hours or more, the Vieux-Port and Le Panier route starts a few minutes' walk from where the shuttle drops you.