Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is the principal international airport serving Paris and the largest airport in France by passenger traffic. It lies about 25 kilometres north-east of central Paris, principally within the commune of Roissy-en-France, and uses the IATA code CDG and ICAO location indicator LFPG. The airport handled 72,029,407 passengers and 473,798 aircraft movements in 2025.[1][2]
Location and role
The airport occupies a large site north-east of Paris across parts of the Val-d'Oise, Seine-et-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis departments. Its official name honours Charles de Gaulle, the wartime leader of Free France and later President of France; it is also widely called Roissy after the nearby commune. The airfield was planned on predominantly open land so that Paris could gain a major airport capable of long-term expansion beyond the limits of Orly and Le Bourget.[2][3]
Paris-CDG is Air France's global connecting hub and, together with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of the two principal hubs used by the Air France-KLM group. Air France consolidated almost all of its Paris departures at Charles de Gaulle on 29 March 2026, with limited Corsica public-service routes remaining outside that change. The carrier described CDG as providing connections to nearly 170 destinations in 2026.[4]
The airport also has a major freight role. Its cargo district accommodates Air France-KLM Cargo, FedEx, La Poste and other international freight operators. Groupe ADP reported approximately 1.9 million tonnes of freight and mail at Paris-CDG in 2024, with 94 per cent of loaded and unloaded tonnage associated with international trade.[5]
Ownership, operation and regulation
The airport is owned and operated by Aéroports de Paris SA, the listed company at the centre of Groupe ADP. The same company owns and operates Paris-Orly and Paris-Le Bourget as part of the Paris airport system. Airport infrastructure, passenger services and commercial property are managed by Groupe ADP, while air traffic services and aeronautical information are supplied through the French state system.[3]
Operational runway data, declared distances and local procedures are published in the French Aeronautical Information Publication. The physical dimensions in this article describe the airfield but do not replace the current AIP, NOTAMs or air traffic control instructions.[6]
History
The French Council of Ministers approved the construction of a second large Paris airport in 1964. Work on the first passenger terminal began in 1968 under architect Paul Andreu. His design placed a circular multi-level building at the centre of seven separate boarding satellites, joined by underground passages, and became one of the airport's most recognisable features.[2]
The airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Pierre Messmer on 8 March 1974. Terminal 1 opened with a stated annual capacity of ten million passengers. The site was initially known as Paris-Nord before taking the name Paris-Charles de Gaulle.[2]
RER line B reached the airport in 1976, the same year in which an Air France Concorde made the airport's first commercial Concorde arrival. Expansion then shifted to the modular Terminal 2 complex. Terminals 2A and 2B opened in 1982, followed by 2D in 1989, Terminal 3 in 1991 and 2C in 1993. The high-speed railway station opened in the centre of Terminal 2 in 1994, allowing direct TGV services to connect with flights without requiring a journey through central Paris.[2]
Terminal 2E opened in 2003 as part of a major expansion for Air France and its partners. On 23 May 2004, part of the terminal's concrete, glass and steel roof structure collapsed, killing four people and injuring three. Subsequent Terminal 2 projects included halls L and M, links between adjoining buildings and additional baggage and aircraft-handling capacity.[7][3]
Terminal 1 closed temporarily during the Covid-19 traffic reduction and reopened in December 2022 after its first three international satellites were joined by a new boarding building. Terminal 2B and the connecting building between 2B and 2D had reopened in 2021 after refurbishment.[3]
Terminals
Paris-CDG has three principal passenger-terminal groupings. The numbering reflects successive development rather than three buildings of similar form, and passengers must check their airline and flight information because different concourses can be several kilometres apart.[8]
Terminal 1
Terminal 1 consists of Andreu's circular central building and surrounding boarding satellites. Passenger processes are arranged vertically within the central structure, whose enclosed escalator tubes cross a large central void. The satellite arrangement gives aircraft stands separation from the landside building, while the post-2022 connecting hall joins several former international satellites airside.[2][3]
Terminal 2
Terminal 2 is a broad complex containing terminals 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F and the more remote 2G. Terminal 2E includes boarding halls K, L and M. Air France and other SkyTeam airlines use much of the 2E, 2F and 2G area for hub operations, while other terminal sections accommodate carriers with different alliance and border-processing requirements.[8][3]
The Terminal 2 railway station lies between the main terminal buildings. Pedestrian links, airport buses and automated transport connect its different areas, but minimum connection times depend on the arrival and departure halls, border controls, security screening and whether an airside transfer is available.[8]
Terminal 3
Terminal 3 is a simpler building beside the Roissypole transport area, separate from the main Terminal 2 complex. It is generally used for selected low-cost and charter operations. Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 passengers use the Airport Charles de Gaulle 1 rail station at Roissypole rather than the TGV station in Terminal 2.[8][3]
Groupe ADP plans to replace the current alphanumeric terminal nomenclature with terminals numbered 1 to 7. Signage replacement is scheduled to begin progressively from September 2026, with the new system intended to take effect on 16 March 2027. Until that change is implemented, operational information should continue to be read using the established Terminal 1, 2A-2G and Terminal 3 names.[9]
Runways and airfield
The airport has two pairs of approximately parallel east-west runways. The French AIP effective 6 August 2026 gives the following physical characteristics:[6]
| Runway | Physical dimensions | Preferred role |
| 08L/26R | 4,142 m x 45 m | Inner northern runway; departures |
| 08R/26L | 2,700 m x 60 m | Outer northern runway; arrivals |
| 09L/27R | 2,700 m x 60 m | Outer southern runway; arrivals |
| 09R/27L | 4,200 m x 45 m | Inner southern runway; departures |
The outer runways are used preferentially for arrivals and the inner runways for departures. This arrangement separates much of the landing and take-off traffic within each runway pair, although runway availability, weather, maintenance, wake turbulence and traffic-management requirements can change the allocation. High Intensity Runway Operations procedures are used to maintain arrival and departure rates.[6]
The published physical length is not necessarily the usable take-off or landing distance for every movement. Threshold displacement, taxiway intersection, long-range departure restrictions and works can alter the declared distance in a particular direction.[6]
Airlines and operations
Air France's hub is organised around connecting banks in which groups of flights arrive and depart within planned windows. The airline's long-haul operation is concentrated mainly in Terminal 2E, with European and regional feeder services using Terminal 2F and 2G. Partner airlines add further connections through the SkyTeam network.[4][3]
In 2025, Air France-KLM and Groupe ADP launched Connect France, a programme covering connectivity, passenger handling and decarbonisation at the hub. Its first passenger-facing measure was a short-connection priority process that uses live journey and queue information to identify connecting passengers at risk of missing their onward flight.[10]
Numerous other full-service, leisure, low-cost and long-haul airlines operate at CDG. Terminal allocation is operational data and can change by airline, route or flight, so a static encyclopaedic list should not replace the airport's live departure information.[8]
Cargo
Cargo City occupies a large dedicated part of the airport and combines all-cargo aircraft stands, sorting centres, warehouses, customs services and road distribution. The presence of express, postal and airline freight hubs allows consignments to move between dedicated freighters and the belly holds of passenger aircraft.[5]
Groupe ADP's 2027-2034 economic-regulation consultation described CDG as the European hub for both FedEx and La Poste. It reported that the FedEx expansion increased sorting capacity by 40 per cent and that 2024 cargo and mail traffic was about 1.9 million tonnes. Those figures refer to 2024 and should not be read as a live statement of 2026 throughput.[5]
Ground transport
Two heavy-rail station areas serve the airport. Airport Charles de Gaulle 1 at Roissypole is on RER line B and serves Terminals 1 and 3 through CDGVAL or walking and shuttle links. Airport Charles de Gaulle 2 TGV is in the Terminal 2 complex and handles RER B as well as high-speed TGV services to destinations beyond Paris.[3][8]
The driverless CDGVAL system connects Terminal 1, Roissypole, long-stay parking areas and Terminal 2. Buses and airport shuttles supplement it for terminal and airside journeys not covered by the automated line. Road access is principally from the A1 motorway, with taxis, coaches, buses, hire cars and private vehicles serving terminal forecourts.[3]
The dedicated CDG Express railway between the airport and Gare de l'Est is scheduled to open in March 2027. It is therefore a future service at the August 2026 snapshot, not part of the airport's current operating rail network.[9][4]
Traffic statistics
| Year | Passengers | Aircraft movements |
| 2024 | 70,290,260 | 460,916 |
| 2025 | 72,029,407 | 473,798 |
Passenger traffic grew by 2.5 per cent in 2025 and aircraft movements by 2.8 per cent. The passenger total remained below the airport's 2019 level, while the recovery varied by market and airline. Traffic figures count arriving, departing and direct-transit passengers according to Groupe ADP's reporting definition.[1][3]
Related pages
Sources
French AIP: LFPG Paris Charles de Gaulle - Service de l'information aeronautique, effective 6 August 2026
Groupe ADP 2025 full-year results - Groupe ADP, 18 February 2026
Groupe ADP Universal Registration Document 2024 - Groupe ADP, 2025
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport 40th anniversary - Aéroports de Paris, 2014
Paris-Charles de Gaulle professional welcome guide 2026 - Groupe ADP, 2026
Groupe ADP Highlights 2025-2026 - Groupe ADP, 2026
Economic regulation consultation 2027-2034 - Groupe ADP, 2025
Air France-KLM reorganises Paris operations - Air France-KLM, 9 April 2026
Connect France short-connection process - Air France-KLM, 7 August 2025
Collapse of Terminal 2E - French Ministry for Ecological Transition, ARIA incident record, accessed 29 August 2026
Image source and licence: Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal 1, 16 June 2013 - Eric Salard, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
