Aviation in France

Aviation in France dates back to the early 1900s the country's first flight was recorded by Louis Blériot in 1909. There were approximately 478 airports in France as of 2004.

Aviation in France
Aviation in Europe
Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle the countries largest airport
Airports
Commercial – primary32
Commercial – non-primary35
General aviation401
Military and other airports38
First flight
July 25, 1909

Among the airspace governance authorities active in France, one is Aéroports de Paris, which has authority over the Paris region, managing 14 airports including the two busiest in France, Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport. The former, located in Roissy near Paris, is the fifth busiest airport in the world with 60 million passenger movements in 2008, and France's primary international airport, serving over 100 airlines.

The national carrier of France is Air France, a full service global airline which flies to 20 domestic destinations and 150 international destinations in 83 countries (including Overseas departments and territories of France) across all 6 major continents.[1]

History

Early history
Air routes of France in 1925

The history of French aviation began at the beginning of the 20th century. The French had been involved in human flight since 1783, when François Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes flew over Paris in the first human flight in a Hot air balloon. On 7 January 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard crossed the English Channel, from Dover to Calais, on board a hydrogen balloon. He was accompanied by John Jeffries, who was the first passenger to fly from the United Kingdom to France.[2] Fixed wing Aviation in France dates back to the early 1900s where the country's first fixed wing flight was recorded in 1909 by Louis Blériot. This was believed to be the first flight in Europe but many disagree and proving its legitimacy as the first flight in Europe is difficult. The country has been involved in many of the industries firsts, such as Charles Lindbergh flight across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 1927, it was the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic.[3]

Edmond Poillot flying a Voisin biplane with a dog, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Modern history
French airline Air France flying the French Airbus A380
flag-carrier, Air France
Corsair International
French Blue

France has been a leader in aviation throughout the modern era. One of the French's most prized exports is aircraft from French aerospace company Airbus. French airports and airlines have seen huge success in the 20th and 21st centuries. Airport number throughout the country have tripled and airlines are seeing steady passenger numbers.

Major airports
Main article: List of airports in France

The following are major airports in France with over 1,000,000 passenger numbers as of no later than 2010.

# Airport
name		 Airport
serves		 Passengers Trend IATA ICAO
1 Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris 65,933,145 CDG LFPG
2 Orly Airport Paris 31,237,865 ORY LFPO
3 Nice Côte d'Azur Airport Nice 12,427,427 NCE LFMN
4 Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport Lyon 9,553,250 LYS LFLL
5 Marseille Provence Airport Marseille 8,475,809 MRS LFML
6 Toulouse–Blagnac Airport Toulouse 7,517,736 TLS LFBO
7 EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg Mulhouse 6,519,393 BSL LFBS
8 Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport Bordeaux 5,759,194 BOD LFBD
9 Nantes Atlantique Airport Nantes 4,157,284 NTE LFRS
10 Beauvais–Tillé Airport Beauvais 3,997,856 BVA LFOB
11 Lille Airport Lille 1,596,700 LIL LFQQ
12 Montpellier–Méditerranée Airport Montpellier 1,445,273 MPL LFMT
13 Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport Ajaccio 1,366,020 AJA LFKJ
14 Bastia – Poretta Airport Bastia 1,162,840 BIA LFKB
15 Biarritz Airport Biarritz 1,135,482 BIQ LFBZ

Major airlines
Main article: List of airlines of France
Airline Headquartered Fleet
size		 Destinations Load
Factor		 Notes
Air France Tremblay-en-France 227[4][5] 204 85.1% Flag carrier/national airline, largest airline in France and 3rd largest airline in the world in terms of countries served.
Transavia France Paray-Vieille-Poste 29 56 91.7% Low-cost airline
Air Corsica Ajaccio 10 17 83.4% Airbus A320 and ATR 72 fleet
Corsair International Rungis 7[6] 12 88.3% —
French Blue Paris 2 3 N/A Founded in 2016
  • All Fleet and destinations numbers as of 2017
  • Load factors as of 2015

Aircraft manufacturing
Main article: Airbus
Airbus word mark

France is home to aerospace giant Airbus, which has its headquarters and main facilities located in Toulouse.

The company has delivered over 10,000 commercial aircraft with the ten thousandth being delivered on 14 October 2016 to Singapore Airlines; it was an Airbus A350. In 2016 the manufacturers global fleet had performed more than 110 million flights over 215 billion kilometres, carrying 12 billion passengers.[7]

Airbus's planes fly for hundreds of active airlines, governments and private owners all over the world. There is an operator on every continent and nearly every country.

See also

References
  1. Les grands secteurs économiques Ministère des Affaires étrangères Retrieved 31 October 2017
  2. "France : The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics". www.aiaa.org. Archived from the original on 2018-07-24. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  3. "June 15, 1919: First Nonstop Flight Crosses Atlantic". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  4. 2016, UBM (UK) Ltd. "Air France plans 787-9 debut in Jan 2017". Retrieved 31 October 2017.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. "Air France KLM announces the order of 110 Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft" (PDF) (Press release). Air France-KLM. 16 September 2011.
  6. "Global Airline Guide 2017 (Part One)". Airliner World (October 2017): 14.
  7. "A journey of 10,000 aircraft and counting: Airbus' pioneering spirit and commitment to shaping the future" (Press release). Airbus. 14 October 2016.
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