CHARLES DE GAULLE For first-time visitors to Charles
de Gaulle (CDG), it can be slightly disconcerting as you descend to see another aircraft mirroring your approach. CDG airport occupies a huge area, almost one-third the size of the city of Paris itself, yet with four runways it has room to spare and can land planes simultaneously. Earlier this year, the French airport celebrated its 40th
anniversary. It
is the second-busiest airport in Europe, after Heathrow (with its two runways), and the eighth- busiest worldwide in terms of traffic, with 62 million passengers passing through in 2013. The airport has room for expansion, however, with a capacity of 80 million, useful when annual traffic growth worldwide is expected to rise by about 3-5 per cent per annum over the next 20 years, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Charles de Gaulle isn’t the only
Paris airport – there are several, including Paris Orly, which also receives international passenger flights – but it is CDG that hosts the global hub of Air France-KLM and is the principal European hub of the Skyteam alliance. Some 60 per cent of passengers are connecting, flying into the airport only to continue on to their eventual destination. Terminal 1 is home to Star Alliance member airlines, while Terminal 2 brings together carriers belonging to Oneworld and Skyteam, with Skyteam-operated intercontinental flights making up more than 60 per cent of CDG’s traffic and more than 80 per cent in Terminal 2. All of this sounds a little abstract
Spread page: Charles de Gaulle Airport
Visit
www.businesstraveller.asia
until you land at the airport. Suddenly you are faced with giant boards filled with seemingly hundreds of departing flights, and directional arrows in both French and English pointing you to different parts of the building. For leisure travellers, it’s an extra bit of stress. For business travellers, who often have a choice over their airline and routing, it can be a deal breaker.
PARIS CHARLES DE GAULLE IN NUMBERS 180
2nd
BUSIEST AIRPORT IN EUROPE
8th BUSIEST
WORLDWIDE 4
RUNWAYS
9 PASSENGER TERMINALS
AIRLINES 315
CITIES SERVED
61.6 MILLION PASSENGERS 391
SHOPS, BARS AND RESTAURANTS
• 600,000 EIFFEL TOWER SOUVENIRS SOLD EVERY YEAR
• 1 MILLION BOTTLES OF WINE
• 400,000 BOTTLES OF CHAMPAGNE
• 400,000 CHEESES
• 250,000 UNITS OF FOIE GRAS
Charles de Gaulle recognises
this, and wants to attract business travellers, even having a special section on the Aéroports de Paris website promoting initiatives such as the Parafe programme (visit
tinyurl.com/q2jvjds). This allows you to pass through border control with just your passport and fingerprints (like the e-passport gates at London Heathrow) and is available to European Union citizens, including those from the UK. (You need to pre-register.) If you are a frequent flyer and
have status with Skyteam, then you will no doubt be on the look-out for Sky Priority areas, where first class, business, Club 2000, Flying Blue, Elite Plus and other eligible members can take advantage of fast- track lines to go through security. Having travelled through the airport twice recently, it’s clear to me that, as with many airport hubs, the minimum connection time (MCT) is something you might want to add padding to. At Charles de Gaulle, depending on route, security, the location of the terminals and the
distance between them, it can be anything from 60 to 90 minutes, although the airport itself refuses to specify a MCT.
The challenge for Charles de Gaulle is meeting 21st
century
requirements with an airport planned and built in the 20th
century.
The addition of security, huge passenger numbers and myriad new airlines serving new traffic flows has meant the airport has kept expanding. But this enviable size – and the capacity to become even larger – has to be made manageable and understandable to passengers, and every piece of new infrastructure has to be slotted in and around what already exists. Charles de Gaulle is now also concentrating on the connections into Paris (to Gare de l’Est station) with its CDG Express construction project. Work is due to begin in 2017, and the line should be operational to the public in 2023. Like most hubs, Charles de Gaulle
is a work in progress, but at least the progress continues. Charles de Gaulle, Paris by Tom Otley
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 27
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