Charles de Gaulle International Airport
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| Charles de Gaulle International Airport Aéroport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| IATA: CDG - ICAO: LFPG | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Operator | Aéroports de Paris | ||
| Serves | Paris | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 392 ft (119 m) | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 08L/26R | 13,829 | 4,215 | Asphalt |
| 08R/26L | 8,858 | 2,700 | Concrete |
| 09L/27R | 8,858 | 2,700 | Asphalt |
| 09R/27L | 13,780 | 4,200 | Asphalt |
Charles de Gaulle International Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG) (French: Aéroport Roissy-Charles de Gaulle), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), in Paris, is one of Europe's principal aviation centres, as well as France's main international airport. It is named after Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), leader of the Free French Forces and founder of the French Fifth Republic. It is located near Roissy, 25 km to the north-east of Paris. The construction of this airport lasted about 10 years.
In 2006, Charles de Gaulle Airport ranked second in Europe in terms of passenger traffic with 56,808,967 passengers [1], behind London Heathrow Airport (67,530,223), and just above Frankfurt International Airport (52,810,683). In terms of plane movements, Charles de Gaulle Airport was number one in Europe with 541,566 planes [2], above Frankfurt International Airport (489,406) and Heathrow (477,029). In terms of cargo traffic, Charles de Gaulle Airport was second in Europe in 2006 with 1,854,950 metric tonnes (2,068,928 US tons) [3], below Frankfurt (2,127,797 metric tonnes), but above Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (1,559,787 metric tonnes).
CDG is connected to the RER urban rail network, providing services into central Paris three to four times per hour, and the high-speed rail TGV network. SNCF French Rail operates direct TGV services to several French stations from CDG, including Angers, Avignon, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Le Mans, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Nîmes, Poitiers, Rennes, Toulouse, Tours, and Valence.
Also codeshared is Thalys International's service to Brussels's South station and a daily service to Brussels National Airport.
The other important airport in the Paris area is Orly Airport. The third main airport serving Paris is Paris-Beauvais-Tillé Airport, which mainly serves low-cost airlines.
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[edit] Geography
Charles de Gaulle Airport extends over 32.38 km² (12.5 sq. miles) of land. The choice of this vast area was made based on the limited number of potential relocations and expropriations and the possibility to further expand the airport in the future. It straddles three départements and seven communes:
- Seine-et-Marne département: communes of Le Mesnil-Amelot (terminals 2E, 2F), Mauregard (terminals 1, 3), Mitry-Mory, and Compans
- Seine-Saint-Denis département: commune of Tremblay-en-France (terminals 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D)
- Val-d'Oise département: communes of Roissy-en-France and Épiais-lès-Louvres
Management of the airport, however, is solely under the authority of Aéroports de Paris, which also manages Orly International Airport, Le Bourget Airport, and several smaller airports in the suburbs of Paris.
[edit] History
The planning and construction phase of what was known back then as Aéroport de Paris Nord (Paris North Airport) began in 1966. On March 8, 1974, the airport, renamed Charles de Gaulle International Airport, began service. Terminal 1 was built to an avant-garde design consisting of a ten-floor high circular building surrounded by seven satellite buildings each with four gates. The main architect was Paul Andreu, who was also in charge of the extensions during the following decades.
The grassy lands on which the airport is located are notorious for hosting a large population of rabbits and hares, which can clearly be seen by aeroplane passengers at certain times of the day. The airport organizes periodic hunts and captures to keep the population to manageable levels. [4]
[edit] Corporate identity
The Frutiger typeface was commissioned for use in the airport, and implemented on signs throughout the building in 1975. Initially called Roissy, it was renamed for its designer Adrian Frutiger.
Until 2005, every P.A. announcement made at Terminal 1 was preceded by a distinctive chime, nicknamed "Indicatif Roissy" and composed by Bernard Parmegiani in 1971. (Audio sample)
Although a new chime is in use inside the terminals, "Indicatif Roissy" is still played before announcements on the inter-terminal buses.
[edit] Merhan Karimi Nasseri
On 26 August 1988, Merhan Karimi Nasseri found himself held at Charles de Gaulle airport by immigration. He claimed he was a refugee, but had had his refugee papers stolen. After years of bureaucratic wrangling, it was concluded that Nasseri had entered the airport legally and could not be expelled from its walls; but since he had no papers, there was no country to deport him to either, leaving him in residential limbo. Nasseri continued to live within the confines of the airport until August 2006, even though French authorities have since made it possible for him to leave if he so wished. He was the inspiration for the 2004 film The Terminal. He was hospitalised in August 2006 and his current location is unknown.
[edit] Collapse of Terminal 2E
Terminal 2E, with a daring design and wide open spaces, was CDG's newest addition. However, on 23 May 2004, not long after its inauguration, a portion of Terminal 2E's ceiling collapsed early in the day, near Gate E50, killing four people [5]. The Chinese government reported that two of the dead were Chinese travellers, and another of the dead was reported to be of Czech nationality. Three other people were injured in the collapse. Terminal 2E had been inaugurated in 2003 after some delays in construction and was designed by Paul Andreu. Administrative and judicial enquiries were started. Coincidentally, Andreu had also designed Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport, which collapsed while under construction on September 28, 2004.
Before this accident, ADP had been planning for a public stock offering in 2005 with the new terminal as a major attraction for investors. The partial collapse and indefinite closing of the terminal just before the beginning of summer could seriously hurt the airport's business plan.
In February 2005, the results from the administrative inquiry were published. The experts pointed out that there was no single fault, but rather a number of causes for the collapse, in a design that had little margins of safety. According to them, the concrete vaulted roof was not resilient enough and had been pierced by metallic pillars, and some openings weakened the structure. Sources close to the enquiry also disclosed that the whole building chain had worked as close to the limits as possible, so as to reduce costs. Paul Andreu denounced the building companies for having not correctly prepared the reinforced concrete.
On March 17, 2005, ADP decided to tear down and rebuild the whole part of Terminal 2E (the "jetty") of which a section had collapsed, at a cost of approximately €100 million [6]. The reconstruction will replace the innovative concrete tube style of the jetty with a more traditional steel and glass structure. Construction will be completed by summer 2008, in the meantime two temporary departure lounges have been constructed in the vicinity of the terminal that replicate the capacity of 2E before the collapse.
[edit] Incidents
On 19 September 1989, UTA Flight 772 exploded over the Sahara Desert while on the second leg of the Brazzaville-Ndjamena-Paris route, killing all on board.
On 24 December 1994, Air France Flight 8969 was hijacked shortly after it took off from Algiers to Paris. It was flown to Marseille, where hijackers wanted it to be refuelled in order to run it into the Eiffel Tower. French commandos intervened and shot all four hijackers dead.
On 17 July 1996, TWA Flight 800, which was bound for Charles de Gaulle International Airport from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, exploded near Long Island.
On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde bound from Charles de Gaulle Airport for JFK crashed into the nearby hotel of Hotelissimo in Gonesse after coming in contact with material that had been left by another plane on the runway. The Concorde was on a German charter flight for a tour company. Everyone on board died, as did four people on the ground.
On 22 December 2001, an Al-Qaida terrorist named Richard Reid tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes onboard American Airlines Flight 63, which was headed from Charles de Gaulle to Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida. He was subdued after a passenger smelled sulphur.
[edit] Terminals
Charles de Gaulle International Airport has three terminals. Terminal 2 was built for Air France, but now hosts other airlines as well. The third terminal (T3, formerly T9) hosts charter and low cost airlines, such as easyJet.
The so-called "terminal 2" is actually not really a terminal, but rather a name applied to six distinct so-called "halls", which each possess a letter (from A to F). In other airports, such as JFK or LAX, these "halls" would simply be called terminals, so that Charles de Gaulle International Airport can be more properly described as having eight terminals altogether. When landing at or taking off from Charles de Gaulle International Airport, one should always know precisely which of the eight terminals/halls the plane lands or takes off from, as these can be located quite far apart from each other. The eight terminals/halls are indicated distinctly on plane tickets: 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 3.
The six halls at Terminal 2, the newest part of the airport, have their own RER and TGV station underneath. Passengers may reach trains going to Paris or to other French and foreign cities by going through passages and moving walkways. Facilities, especially seating and catering, are extremely limited in terminal 2 and compare poorly with other more modern European airports.
In 2006, the French government expressed the wish to designate certain terminals of French airports as "high-security" terminals that would handle flights to sensitive locations, such as the US and Israel. Terminal 2E is planned to be the high security terminal at CDG with the installation of more rigorous security controls planned during the course of 2007. At the start of the Winter timetable in 2006, Air France moved most of its flights to the US to 2E.
The RER station for Terminal 1 is quite distant from Terminal 1, and this terminal must, in fact, be reached using a free shuttle bus from the RER station. Shuttle buses also link Terminals 1, 2 (and its associated TGV station) and 3.
A VAL transit system, CDGVAL, is currently under construction and should link all the eight terminal/halls in the near future. Its opening is forecast for the middle of 2007.
[edit] Expansion Plans
Apart from the reconstruction of Terminal 2E, two major terminal extensions are underway as of 2007.
The construction of Satellite 3 (or S3) to the immediate west of Terminals 2E and 2F will provide further jetways for large capacity airlines, and specifically the Airbus 380. Check-in and baggage handling will be provided by the existing infrastructure in Terminals 2E and 2F. Satellite 3, whose construction can be seen by arriving passengers at Terminals 2E and 2F, is scheduled to open in the first half of 2008. A further Satellite 4 is planned to open in 2012 to provide additional capacity, again relying on the check-in and baggage handling infrastructure of 2E and 2F.
Construction began on a new terminal building, Terminal 2G, to the west of the S3 construction site in September 2006 with the first stone of the new building itself laid in March 2007. It will be connected to the Terminal 2 complex by shuttle buses and eventualy an extension of the CDGVAL shuttle train service due to open in Spring 2007. 2G will be a Schengen terminal (and thus have no customs control) and will handle Air France regional and European traffic and provide small capacity planes (up to 150 passengers) with a faster turn-around time than is currently possible by enabling them to park close to the new terminal building and boarding passengers primarily by bus. Opening is planned for the Winter season of 2008.
[edit] Appearances in films
- In the video of the U2 song Beautiful Day the band can be seen walking through the airport.
- Tarmac was used in the Walt Disney attraction film, Le Visionarium and featured a Concorde of Air France and DC-10 of Union des Transports Aériens.
- Many scenes were filmed at the airport for the film, The Concorde: Airport '79
- Terminal 1 is used as the backdrop for the The Alan Parsons Project I Robot (album).
- The check-in area of Terminal 2F is a favourite film location for French directors and can frequently be seen in French films that require an airport location.
[edit] Photography restrictions
On November 7, 2005, French law number 05-4979 was published, relating specifically to Charles de Gaulle airport. The law prohibits photographs being taken for private use of anything moving (e.g. aircraft) or not moving (e.g. buildings) within the "zone reservée" (the restricted area) from the "zone publique" (the public area). It is not clear whether the public area refers to all areas from which the airport is visible, or only to areas within the grounds of the airport. The law is much to the consternation of plane spotters [7], but some authorizations can be obtained.
[edit] Airlines
[edit] Terminal 1
- Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
- Aer Lingus (Cork, Dublin)
- Afriqiyah Airways (Tripoli)
- Aigle Azur (Algiers, Hassi Messaoud)
- airBaltic (Riga)
- Air China (Beijing, Shanghai-Pudong)
- Air Comet (Madrid)
- All Nippon Airways (Tokyo-Narita)
- Air One (Turin)
- Arkia Israel Airlines (Tel Aviv)
- Armavia (Yerevan)
- Binter Canarias (Las Palmas, Tenerife-North)
- Blue1 (Helsinki)
- bmi
- bmibaby (Nottingham/East Midlands)
- Croatia Airlines (Dubrovnik, Split, Zagreb)
- Cyprus Airways (Larnaca, Thessaloniki)
- Daallo Airlines operated by Astraeus (Djibouti)
- Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa, Frankfurt)
- EVA Air (Taipei-Taiwan Taoyuan)
- Flybe (Cardiff [starts April 29, 2007], Exeter, Norwich, Southampton)
- Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart)
- Gulf Air (Abu Dhabi, Bahrain)
- Iberworld (Palma de Mallorca)
- Icelandair (Reykjavik-Kleflavik)
- Israir (Tel Aviv)
- Kuwait Airways (Geneva, Kuwait, Rome-Fiumicino)
- LOT Polish (Warsaw)
- Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich)
- Lufthansa CityLine (Berlin-Tegel, Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart)
- Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
- Olympic Airlines (Athens)
- Pakistan International Airlines (Islamabad, Lahore)
- Qatar Airways (Doha)
- Rossiya Airlines (St. Petersburg)
- Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca)
- Royal Jordanian (Amman)
- Saudi Arabian Airlines (Beirut, Jeddah, Riyadh)
- Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen, Stockholm-Arlanda)
- SAS Braathens (Oslo)
- Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
- South African Airways (Johannesburg)
- SriLankan Airlines (Colombo)
- TACV Cabo Verde (Sal)
- TAP Portugal (Lisbon)
- Thai Airways International (Bangkok)
- United Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, Washington-Dulles)
- US Airways (Philadelphia)
- Vueling Airlines (Amsterdam [Starts May 16, 2007], Barcelona, Madrid, Milan-Malpensa [Starts April 9, 2007], Seville [Starts June 29, 2007], Valencia)
- Yemenia (Sanaa)
[edit] Terminal 2
[edit] Hall A (Terminal 2A)
- Air Austral (Reunion Island, Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar)
- Air Canada (Montréal, Toronto-Pearson)
- Air France (Delhi, Havana, Mumbai, Punta Cana, Santo Domingo)
- Air India (Mumbai, Newark)
- Air Madagascar (Antananarivo)
- Air Tahiti Nui (Los Angeles, Papeete)
- American Airlines (Boston [seasonal], Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York-JFK)
- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
- Continental Airlines (Cleveland [seasonal/starts May 2008], Houston-Intercontinental, Newark)
- El Al (Tel Aviv)
- Kenya Airways (Nairobi)
- Sun D'Or (Tel Aviv)
- TAAG Air Angola (Luanda)
- TAM (Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, São Paulo-Guarulhos)
- XL Airways France (Cancun, Male, San Salvador, Varadero)
[edit] Hall B (Terminal 2B)
- Air Algérie (Algiers, Annaba)
- Air France (Algiers, Belgrade, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Istanbul-Atatürk, Kiev-Boryspil, Prague, Rabat, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Zagreb)
- Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
- Azerbaijan Airlines (Baku)
- Belavia (Minsk)
- British Airways (London-Heathrow)
- Bulgaria Air (Sofia)
- Czech Airlines (Prague)
- Estonian Air (Tallinn)
- Flybe (Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester)
- FlyLal (Vilnius)
- Georgian Airways (Tbilisi)
- Jat Airways (Belgrade)
- Malév Hungarian Airlines (Budapest)
- Swiss International Air Lines (Zürich)
- Swiss European Air Lines (Zürich)
- Tarom (Bucharest-Otopeni)
- Ukraine International Airlines (Kiev-Boryspil)
- Uzbekistan Airways (Tashkent)
[edit] Hall C (Terminal 2C)
- Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)
- Aeroméxico (Mexico City)
- Air France (Abidjan, Amman, Antananarivo, Bamako, Bangkok, Beijing, Brazzaville, Cairo, Caracas, Cotonou, Dakar, Douala, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Kinshasa, Lome, Mauritius, Mexico City, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Niamey, Ouagadougou, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Shanghai-Pudong, Singapore, St.Maarten, Yaounde)
- Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
- Air Seychelles (Mahe)
- China Eastern Airlines (Shanghai-Pudong)
- China Southern Airlines (Guangzhou)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- Vietnam Airlines (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)
[edit] Hall D (Terminal 2D)
- Air Europa (Málaga, Valencia)
- Air France (Athens, Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin-Tegel, Bologna, Bremen, Brest, Clermont, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Lisbon, Marseille, Montpellier, Munich, Naples, Oslo, Pau, Stockholm-Arlanda, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Turin, Vienna)
- Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
- Finnair (Helsinki)
- Iberia (Barcelona, Madrid)
- Air Nostrum (Zaragoza)
- Luxair (Luxembourg)
- Portugalia (Porto)
[edit] Hall E (Terminal 2E)
- Air France (Atlanta, Boston, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Chicago-O'Hare, Detroit, Djibouti, Houston-Intercontinental, Libreville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma [begins June 11, 2007], Santiago, Tel Aviv, Washington-Dulles)
- Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, New York-JFK)
- Northwest Airlines (Detroit)
[edit] Hall F (Terminal 2F)
- Air France (Amsterdam, Bangalore, Bangui, Barcelona, Beirut, Biarritz, Bogota, Bordeaux, Casablanca, Chennai, Conakry, Damascus, Dubai, Düsseldorf, Geneva, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Lagos, London-Heathrow, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Malabo, Manchester, Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Montréal, N'Djamena, Nantes, Nice, Nouakchott, Osaka-Kansai, Pointe-à-Pitre, Pointe Noire, Port Harcourt, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Seoul-Incheon, Tehran-Mehrabad, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson, Toulouse, Tunis, Venice, Yerevan)
- Alitalia (Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)
- Japan Airlines (Nagoya-Centrair, Tokyo-Narita)
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
- Korean Air (Seoul-Incheon)
- Middle East Airlines (Beirut)
[edit] Terminal 3 (formerly T9)
- Air Berlin (Nuremberg)
- Air Cairo
- Air Mediterranee
- Air Memphis
- Air Transat (Montréal, Ottawa, Québec City, Toronto-Pearson)
- AMC Airlines
- Blue Line
- Bravo Air Congo operated by Bravo Airlines (Kinshasa)
- Carpatair (Timişoara)
- easyJet (Belfast-International, Bristol, Lisbon, Liverpool, London-Luton, Milan-Malpensa, Newcastle, Nice)
- easyJet Switzerland (Basel/Mulhouse)
- Eagle Aviation
- Eurocypria
- European Air Charter
- Evolavia (Ancona)
- Fly Air (Antalya)
- Free Bird Airlines
- Jet2.com (Leeds/Bradford)
- Karthago Airlines
- Meridiana (Cagliari, Catania, Milan-Linate, Naples, Olbia, Palmero)
- MyAir (Bologna, Bucharest-Băneasa [starts June 1, 2007])
- Niki (Vienna)
- Nouvelair (Monastir)
- Onur Air (Antalya, Istanbul-Atatürk)
- Pegasus Airlines
- Smart Wings (Budapest, Prague)
- Star Airlines (Antalya)
- STA Trans African
- Windjet (Catania, Forli, Palermo)
- Zoom Airlines (Calgary, Halifax [starts June 12, 2007], Montréal, Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver)
[edit] See also
- Transportation in France
- List of French Airports
- Merhan Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in the airport from 1988 to 2006.
[edit] References
- French Aeronautical Information Publication for LFPG PDF - PARIS CHARLES DE GAULLE
[edit] External links
General
- Aéroports de Paris (official website) (English)
- Aéroport de Paris - Roissy Charles de Gaulle (Union des Aéroports Français) (French)
- Structurae: Charles de Gaulle Airport (English)
- World Aero Data airport information for LFPG
Collapse of Terminal 2E
- Official report of the administrative enquiry commission (French)
- BBC News Report on the Air France Flight 4590 Concorde crash (English)
