Tours Loire Valley Airport

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Tours Loire Valley Airport (Tours Val de Loire Airport) Aéroport Tours Val de Loire
IATA: TUF - ICAO: LFOT
Summary
Airport type		Public / Military
Operator		French Air Force
Serves		Tours
Elevation AMSL		357 ft (109 m)
Coordinates		47°25′56″N, 00°43′39″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
02/20	7,887	2,404	Concrete

Tours Loire Valley Airport or Tours Val de Loire Airport (French: Aéroport Tours Val de Loire) (IATA: TUF, ICAO: LFOT) is an airport in the French département of Indre-et-Loire, 6 km north-northeast of the city of Tours in the Loire Valley (French: Val de Loire).

The airport dates back to the 1930s, and was first used as a military base. It was used during the Second World War - Winston Churchill disembarked here the day before the armistice, before it was destroyed by German bombings then by British bombings. It was used by NATO and the US Air Force before becoming a flying school in the 1950s. It was only open to civilian aircraft from the early 1960s. During the end of the 1970s the airport enjoyed a golden period due to the local airline Touraine Air Transport (TAT), but that airline suffered a slow slump, from which the airport never really recovered until the late 1990s, after subventions by the Conseil Général.

Today, the airport is open to both national and international carriers, private planes and both IFR and VFR. Due to its limited security measures, the airport is not open to larger carriers.

The airport has daily Boeing 737 flights to London Stansted with Ryanair, and non-regular flights to Lyon and Bastia. The airport is home to around 40 Alpha Jets belonging to the air force , as well as a couple of Mirage fighter planes as part of the Vigipirate defence plan.