CHARLES DE GAULLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
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'Charles de Gaulle International Airport' (), also known as 'Roissy Airport' (or just ''Roissy'' in French), in Paris, is one of world'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.
In 2006, Charles de Gaulle Airport ranked second in Europe in terms of passenger traffic with 56,849,567 passengers [1], behind London Heathrow Airport (67,530,197), and above Frankfurt International Airport (52,810,683). In terms of plane movements, Charles de Gaulle Airport was number one in Europe with 541,566 landings and take offs [2], above Frankfurt International Airport (489,406) and Heathrow (477,029). In terms of cargo traffic, Charles de Gaulle Airport was also number one in Europe with 2,130,724 tonnes (2,348,721 US tons) [3], just above Frankfurt (2,127,646 tonnes), and above Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (1,566,828 tonnes) and Heathrow (1,343,930 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, Lyons, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Nîmes, Poitiers, Rennes, Toulouse, Tours, and Valence.
The three other international airports serving Paris are Orly Airport, the most important after CDG, Paris-Beauvais-Tillé Airport, which mainly serves low-cost airlines, and Paris - Le Bourget Airport for General aviation (business jets).
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.
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, 1972, 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]
Corporate identity
The new logo of Aéroports de Paris used since 6 June 2005
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)
Mehran Karimi Nasseri
On 26 August 1988, Mehran 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.
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.[1] 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. Andreu 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 margin for safety. The enquiry found 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 [5]. 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.
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 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.
Terminals
Terminal 2 Hall F. Wide open spaces characterize Terminal 2.
Charles de Gaulle International Airport has three terminals. Terminal 1 () is the oldest. 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.
Terminal 2 is actually not really a terminal, but rather a name applied to six distinct "halls", each given 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 arrives at or departs 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.
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.
FIDS at Charles de Gaulle International Airport
The RER station for Terminal 1 () is quite distant from Terminal 1, and this terminal must, in fact, be reached using the free CDGVAL automatic light rail system (VAL); previously, shuttle buses were used.
Started on April 4, 2007, CDGVAL links all the eight terminal/halls.
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 airliners, 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.
A giant new Boarding Complex, known as S3, opened on June 27, 2007. This facility, built in collaboration with Air France-KLM, will open in phases and will be fully operational by the end of the year. The center should provide relief to millions of passengers who must now endure annoying and lengthy bus rides to board and disembark from flights. It should also mean faster transfer times to connecting flights and fewer lost bags. Fixing de Gaulle Will Lift Air France-KLM
Ground transportation
CDG airport is connected to Paris by the RER B suburban train, offering both non-stop services (going directly from the airport to Paris Gare du Nord and beyond) and services stopping at intermediate stations. The faster trains take about 30 minutes to the Gare du Nord, the stopping trains about 35. There are two RER B stations inside the airport:
★ one, called 'Paris Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1', is located inside Roissypôle (an area with hotels and company offices), besides Terminal 3, and is the preferred way to access terminals 1 and 3;
★ the other, called 'Paris Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2', is located beside the TGV station under Terminal 2.
Terminal 2 includes a TGV station with high-speed trains connecting to various destinations in France and via Lille Europe to Brussels. The direct Thalys service between the airport and Brussels Midi was withdrawn in 2007.
Terminals 1, 2, the Roissypôle / Terminal 3 RER station, and parking lots PX and PR are connected by the free CDGVAL automatic shuttle. CDGVAL replaces free shuttle buses.
Roissybus, operated by RATP, departs from terminals 1 and 2 and goes non-stop to Paris, behind the Opéra Garnier.
There is a bus and coach station in Roissypôle, next to the RER B station. Buses departing from this station include RATP lines 350 and 351 going to Paris, and the bus going to the Parc Astérix.
RER B both serves CDG airport (with a travelling clientele) as well as northern suburbs of Paris. The line, operated by SNCF, suffers from slowness and saturation. For these reasons, French authorities have started two projects: one, CDG Express, will link CDG to Paris Gare de l'Est with trains specifically designed for air travellers; the other, RER B Nord Plus, will modernize and streamline the northern branches of RER B.
Trivia
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, ''
★ 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.
★ Décalage Horaire.
Photography restrictions
On November 7 2005, prefectoral decision 05-4979 was issued, 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 decision is much to the consternation of plane spotters [6], but some authorizations can be obtained.
Airlines and destinations
Terminal 1
Aerial view of Terminal 1
Terminal 1 old check in point
Terminal 1 new check-in
★ Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
★ Aer Lingus (Cork, Dublin)
★ Aerolineas Argentinas (Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Madrid)
★ 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 (Belfast-City, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester, Norwich, Southampton)
★ Gabon Airlines (Libreville)
★ Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart)
★ Gulf Air (Abu Dhabi, Bahrain)
★ Iberworld (Palma de Mallorca)
★ Icelandair (Reykjavik-Keflavik)
★ Israir Airlines (Tel Aviv)
★ Kuwait Airways (Geneva, Kuwait, Rome-Fiumicino)
★ LOT Polish Airlines (Kraków, 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, Karachi, Lahore, Milan-Malpensa)
★ Qatar Airways (Doha)
★ Rossiya (St. Petersburg)
★ Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca)
★ Royal Jordanian (Amman)
★ SATA International (Madeira)
★ Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah, Riyadh)
★ Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen, Stockholm-Arlanda, Oslo)
★ Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
★ South African Airways (Johannesburg) [ends October 2007 [7]
★ SriLankan Airlines (Colombo)
★ TACV Cabo Verde (Sal)
★ TAP Portugal (Lisbon)
★ Thai Airways International (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi)
★ United Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, Washington-Dulles)
★ US Airways (Philadelphia)
★ Vueling Airlines (Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Ibiza, Madrid, Málaga, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Valencia, Venice)
★ Yemenia (Sanaa)
Terminal 2
Hall A (Terminal 2A)
★ Air Austral (Reunion Island, Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar)
★ Air Canada (Montreal, Toronto-Pearson)
★ Air France (Delhi, Havana, Karachi [Restart in 2008], 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 (Houston-Intercontinental, Newark)
★ El Al Israel Airlines (Tel Aviv)
★ Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)
★ Kenya Airways (Nairobi)
★ Sun d'Or International Airlines (Tel Aviv)
★ TAAG Angola Airlines (Luanda) [service suspended as of July 4, 2007]
★ TAM (Salvador, Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, São Paulo-Guarulhos)
★ XL Airways France (Cancun, Male, San Salvador, Varadero)
Hall B (Terminal 2B)
★ Air Algérie (Algiers, Annaba, Constantine, Hassi Messaoud, Oran)
★ Air France (Algiers, Belgrade, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Istanbul-Atatürk, Kiev-Boryspil, Prague, Rabat, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Zagreb)
★
★ operated by Régional (Ljubljana)
★ Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
★ Azerbaijan Airlines (Baku)
★ Belavia (Minsk)
★ British Airways (London-Heathrow)
★ Bulgaria Air (Sofia)
★ Czech Airlines (Prague)
★ Estonian Air (Tallinn)
★ 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)
Hall C (Terminal 2C)
★ Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)
★ Aeroméxico (Mexico City)
★ Air France (Abidjan, Amman, Antananarivo, Bamako, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Beijing, Brazzaville, Cairo, Caracas, Cotonou, Dakar, Douala, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kinshasa, Lome, Mauritius, Mexico City, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Niamey, Ouagadougou, 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)
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)
★
★ Brit Air (Genoa, Limoges, Rennes)
★
★ CityJet (Florence)
★
★ Régional (Bilbao, Hanover, Nuremberg, Vigo)
★ Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
★ Finnair (Helsinki)
★ Iberia (Barcelona, Madrid)
★
★ Air Nostrum (Zaragoza)
★ Luxair (Luxembourg)
★ Portugalia (Porto)
Hall E (Terminal 2E)
★ Air France (Atlanta, Boston, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Chicago-O'Hare, Detroit, Djibouti, Hong Kong, Houston-Intercontinental, Libreville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma, Santiago, Tel Aviv, Washington-Dulles)
★ Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, New York-JFK, Salt Lake City [begins June 2, 2008])
★ Northwest Airlines (Detroit)
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, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Seoul-Incheon, Tehran-Mehrabad, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson, Toulouse, Tunis, Venice, Yerevan)
★
★ Air France operated by Airlinair (Bristol)
★
★ Air France operated by Brit Air (Newcastle, Southampton)
★
★ Air France operated by CityJet (Birmingham, Dublin, Edinburgh, Gothenburg-Landvetter, London-City, Zürich)
★
★ Air France operated by Régional (Aberdeen, Verona)
★ Alitalia (Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)
★ Japan Airlines (Nagoya-Centrair, Tokyo-Narita)
★ KLM (Amsterdam)
★ Korean Air (Seoul-Incheon)
★ Middle East Airlines (Beirut)
Terminal 3 (formerly ''T9'')
★ Air Berlin (Nuremberg)
★ Air Cairo
★ Air Mediterranee
★ Air Memphis
★ Air Transat (Montréal, Ottawa [seasonal], Québec City, Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver [begins May 30, 2008])
★ Blue Line
★ Bravo Air Congo operated by Bravo Airlines (Kinshasa)
★ Carpatair (TimiÅŸoara)
★ easyJet (Belfast-International, Bristol, Edinburgh [starts September 10 2007], Glasgow [starts 29 Ocober], Lisbon, Liverpool, London-Luton, Milan-Malpensa, Newcastle, Nice)
★ Eurocypria Airlines (Paphos)
★ Evolavia (Ancona)
★ Free Bird Airlines
★ Iceland Express (ReykjavÃk-KeflavÃk)
★ Jet2.com (Leeds/Bradford, Manchester)
★ Karthago Airlines
★ Meridiana (Cagliari, Catania, Milan-Linate, Naples, Olbia, Palmero)
★ MyAir (Bari, Bologna, Bucharest-Băneasa, Genova)
★ Niki (Vienna)
★ Nouvelair (Monastir)
★ Onur Air (Antalya, Istanbul-Atatürk)
★ Smart Wings (Budapest, Prague)
★ Star Airlines (Antalya)
★ Sterling Airlines (Billund, Copenhagen, Oslo [starts October 28, 2007])
★ STA Trans African
★ Windjet (Catania, Forli, Palermo)
★ Zoom Airlines (Calgary, Halifax, Montréal, Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver)
Cargo airlines
★ Air Contractors
★ FedEx Express
Airport Reviews
Charles de Gaulle Airport is frequently in Fodor's list of worst Airport.
"Dim, damp, and dirty. You'll get no help from surly staff as you try to navigate the loops within loops that comprise the airport. Signs are either confusing or cleverly hidden. Make your way to where you thought you were supposed to be and you'll realize you're not as close as you'd hoped. Bathrooms are nasty." Airports We Love (and Hate)
See also
★ Transportation in France
★ List of French Airports
★ Merhan Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in the airport from 1988 to 2006.
References
★ French Aeronautical Information Publication for '' (PDF) - PARIS CHARLES DE GAULLE
Notes and references
1. 'Fresh cracks' at Paris airport
External links
;General
★ Aéroports de Paris (official website)
★ Aéroport de Paris - Roissy Charles de Gaulle (Union des Aéroports Français)
★ Structurae: Charles de Gaulle Airport
★ Passengers services
★
;Collapse of Terminal 2E
★ Official report of the administrative enquiry commission
★ Photos of Terminal 2E before and after the collapse, and during reconstruction
★ BBC News Report on the Air France Flight 4590 Concorde crash
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