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Charles de Gaulle Airport

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Paris' Charles de Gaulle International Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG) (French: Aéroport de Roissy-Charles de Gaulle), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), 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), a French general and former president. It is located near Roissy, 25 km to the north-east of Paris.

In 2004, Charles de Gaulle Airport ranked second in Europe in terms of passenger traffic with 51,260,363 passengers [1], behind London Heathrow Airport (67,344,054), and just above Frankfurt International Airport (51,098,271). In terms of plane movements, Charles de Gaulle Airport was number one in Europe with 525,660 planes [2], above Frankfurt International Airport (477,475) and Heathrow (475,999). In terms of cargo traffic, Charles de Gaulle Airport was also number one in Europe in 2004 with 1,876,900 metric tonnes (2,068,928 US tons) [3], above Frankfurt (1,838,894 metric tonnes) and Heathrow (1,412,033 metric tonnes).

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, Montpellier Rail Station in Montpellier, Nantes Rail Station in Nantes, Nimes Rail Station in Nîmes, 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.

History

The new logo of Aéroports de Paris used since 6 June 2005
The new logo of Aéroports de Paris used since 6 June 2005

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.

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.

On 22 December, 2001, an Al-Qaeda 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.

The 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 [4]. Terminal 2E had been inaugurated in 2003 after some delays in construction and was also 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 enquiry were published. The experts pointed out that the there existed no single fault, but rather a multiplicity of causes to 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 [5].

Terminals

Terminal

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 posses each a letter (from Hall A to Hall 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.

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 end of 2006.

Trivia

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 airplane passengers at certain times of the day. The airport organizes periodic hunts and captures to keep the population to manageable levels. [6] In the video of the U2 song Beautiful Day the band can be seen walking through de Gaulle Airport

Airlines

Terminal 1

Terminal 2

Hall A (Terminal 2A)

Hall B (Terminal 2B)

Hall C (Terminal 2C)

  • Air France (Abidjan, Antanarivo, Atlanta, Bangkok, Beijing, Boston, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Chicago/O'Hare, Dakar, Delhi, Douala, Djibouti, Fort-de-France, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Libreville, Los Angeles, Mauritius, Miami, Newark, New York/JFK, Niamey, Ouagadougou, Papeete, Pointe-à-Pitre, Port Harcourt, Santiago, San Francisco, Seoul/Incheon, Shanghai, Singapore, Sao Paulo, St.Maarten, Yaounde, Washington/Dulles)
  • Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
  • Air Seychelles (Mahe)
  • China Eastern (Beijing and Shanghai)
  • China Southern (Guangzhou)
  • Korean Air (Seoul/Incheon)
  • Vietnam Airlines (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City)

Hall D (Terminal 2D)

Hall E (Terminal 2E)

Hall F (Terminal 2F)

  • Air France (Aberdeen, Amman, Amsterdam, Bamako, Bangui, Barcelona, Bogota, Cairo, Caracas, Casablanca, Conakry, Dubai, Geneva, Houston/Intercontinental, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Kuwait, Lagos, London/Heathrow, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Malabo, Manchester (UK), Milan/Linate, Milan/Malpensa, Montréal, Naples, N'Djamena, Newcastle, Nice, Osaka/Kansai, Philadelphia, Pointe Noire, Punta Cana, Rio De Janeiro, Rome/Fiumicino, Santo Domingo, Tel Aviv, Tokyo/Narita, Toronto, Toulouse, Tunis, Turin, Venice, Verona)
  • Alitalia (Milan/Linate, Milan/Malpensa, Rome/Fiumicino)
  • British European
  • Flybe (Birmingham (UK))
  • CityJet (Dublin, Edinburgh, Gothenburg, London/City, Zurich)
  • Japan Airlines (Osaka and Tokyo/Narita)
  • Jersey European Airways
  • KLM (Amsterdam and Basel/Mulhouse)
  • Middle East Airlines (Beirut)

Terminal 3 (Formerly T9)

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
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