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Encyclopedia > Charles de Gaulle Airport
Charles De Gaulle Airport
Type of Airport commercial
Run by Aeroports de Paris
Opened 1974
Closest Town Paris, France
Distance from Town 23 kilometres (14 miles)
Latitude Longitude
49 35"N 002 55"E
IATA CDG ICAO LFPG
Runways
Direction Length Surface
Feet Metres
09R/27L 13,779 4,200 Paved
09L/27R 8,858 2,700 Paved
08R/27R 8,858 2,700 Paved
08L/27R 13,828 4,215 Paved
Statistics
1997
Number of Passengers 35,327,039
Number of Takeoffs/Landings 402,713
Comments on this test infobox

Charles de Gaulle International Airport (French: A roport de Roissy-Charles de Gaulle), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), serving Paris, is one of Europe's principal aviation centers, as well as France's main international airport. It is named after Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), a French general and statesman.


In 2003, Charles de Gaulle Airport ranked second in Europe in terms of passenger traffic (in a tie with Frankfurt International Airport), behind London Heathrow Airport which had 31.5% more passenger traffic than Charles de Gaulle Airport. In terms of plane movements, Charles de Gaulle Airport was number one in Europe, with 11% more planes than at Heathrow, and 12% more planes than at Frankfurt. In terms of cargo traffic, Charles de Gaulle also ranked number one in Europe in 2003, with 4.5% more cargo traffic than at Frankfurt, and 32.5% more cargo traffic than at Heathrow.


The airport has the IATA Airport Code CDG, and the ICAO Airport Code LFPG. The airport is near Roissy, 25 km to the north-east of Paris.


CDG is connected to the RER commuter rail network, and the high-speed rail TGV network providing service into downtown Paris three or four times per hour. SNCF French Rail operates rail service to several French stations from CDG, including Angers Rail Station in Angers, TGV Rail Station in Avignon, Gare de Bordeaux in Bordeaux, Le Mans Rail Station in Le Mans, Lille Europe in Lille, Lyon Rail Station in Lyon, Marseille Rail Station in Marseille, France, Montpellier Rail Station in Montpellier, Nantes Rail Station in Nantes, Nimes Rail Station in Nimes, France, Poitiers Rail Station in Poitiers, Rennes Rail Station in Rennes, Toulouse Rail Station in Toulouse, Tours Rail Station in Tours, and Valence Rail Station in Valence.


Also codeshared is Thalys International's service to Brussels's Midi Station.


The other important airport in the Paris area is Orly Airport.

Contents
1 History
2 Terminals
3 Airlines

3.1 Terminal 1
3.2 Terminal 2
3.3 Terminal 3 (T9)

4 External links

History

After seven years of planning and construction, CDG began service on March 8, 1974. Terminal one 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.


On 3 March 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed immediately after take off from Charles de Gaulle, killing all its passengers.


On 26 August 1988, one 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 has continued to live within the confines of the airport to this day, even though French authorities have since made it possible for him to leave if he so chooses (http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/airport.htm).


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 Jamaica, Queens, New York, New York, exploded near Long Island.


On 25 July 2000, an Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde bound from Charles de Gaulle Airport for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City crashed in nearby 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. This was the only time a Concorde had crashed.


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 sulfur.


On 23 May 2004, a portion of Terminal 2E's ceiling collapsed early in the day, near Gate E50, killing four people [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3743081.stm). Terminal 2E had been inaugurated in 2003 after some delays in construction. Terminal 2E was designed by French architect Paul Andreu, who also designed Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport. Dubai's Terminal 3 collapsed while under construction on September 28, 2004.


Before this accident, the Aeroports de Paris has 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.


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 airlines.


Terminal 2, the newest, has its 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.


The RER station for Terminal 1 must, in fact, be reached using a free shuttle bus.


Airlines

Terminal 1

Terminal 2

  • Hall C
    • Aerom xico (Mexico City)
    • Air France (Abidjan, Atlanta, Bangkok, Beijing, Boston, Buenos Aires, Chicago O'Hare, Dakar, Douala, Djibouti, Fort De France, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Libreville, Mauritius, Miami, Newark, New York Kennedy, Niamey, Ouagadougou, Pointe a Pitre, Port Harcourt, Santiago, San Francisco, Seoul Incheon, Shanghai, Singapore, Yaounde)
    • Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
    • Air Seychelles (Mahe)
    • China Eastern (Beijing, Shanghai)
    • China Southern (Guangzhou)
    • Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Cincinnati, New York Kennedy)
    • Korean Air (Seoul Incheon)
    • Vietnam Airlines (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)
  • Hall D
    • Air France (Athens, Basel, Berlin Tegel, Biarritz, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bremen, Brest, Clermont, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Florence, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Lisbon, Malaga, Montpellier, Munich, Nantes, Nuremberg, Oporto, Oslo, Pau, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Valencia, Vienna, Vigo)
    • Brit Air (Bilbao, Genoa, Limoges, Rennes, Southampton)
    • Alitalia (Milan Linate, Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino)
    • Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
    • Eurofly
    • Finnair (Helsinki)
    • Iberia Airlines
    • Jersey European Airways
    • Luxair (Luxembourg
    • Maersk Air (Billund)
    • Styrian Air (Salzburg)
  • Hall F
    • Air France (Aberdeen, Amman, Amsterdam, Antanarivo, Bangui, Barcelona, Bogota, Cairo, Caracas, Casablanca, Dubai, Geneva, Houston Intercontinental, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Kuwait, Lagos, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Malabo, Manchester, Mexico City, Milan Malpensa, Montreal, Naples, N'Djamena, Newcastle, Nice, Osaka, Philadelphia, Pointe Noire, Punta Cana, Rio De Janeiro, Rome Fiumicino, Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo, Sofia, St. Maarten, Tashkent, Tel Aviv, Tokyo Narita, Toronto, Toulouse, Tunis, Turin, Venice, Verona, Washington Dulles)
    • Alitalia (Milan Linate, Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino
    • British European
    • Flybe (Birmingham (UK)
    • CityJet (Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, Gothenburg, London City, Zurich)
    • Iberia Airlines
    • Japan Airlines (Osaka, Tokyo Narita)
    • Jersey European Airways
    • KLM
    • Middle East Airlines (Beirut)
    • TAM Airlines

Terminal 3 (T9)

See also: Transportation in France, List of French Airports


External links

  • A roports de Paris (http://www.adp.fr/webadp/a_cont01.nsf/%24%24Affich@ReadForm&cle=X500.html) French language website
  • Structurae: Charles de Gaulle Airport (http://www.structurae.net/en/projects/data/p00122/index.cfm)

  Results from FactBites:
 
Charles de Gaulle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (5194 words)
De Gaulle believed that while the war in Algeria was militarily winnable it was not defensible internationally, and he became reconciled to the former colony's eventual independence.
De Gaulle was convinced that a strong and independent France could act as a balancing force in the rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union, a policy seen as little more than posturing and opportunism by his critics, particularly in Britain and the U.S., to which France was formally allied.
De Gaulle, claiming that the word "unacceptable" was unacceptable, promptly cancelled the remainder of his visit, and returned to France where he was also heavily criticised by a large part of the French media.
Encyclopedia4U - Charles de Gaulle - Encyclopedia Article (2305 words)
Born in Lille, de Gaulle was the son of a teacher and was educated at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr.
De Gaulle was in England when on June 16 Pétain, now Marshal of France, became premier with the intention of seeking an armistice with Germany.
De Gaulle believed that while the war in Algeria was militarily winnable it was not defensible internationally, and he became reconciled to the country's independence.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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