Nantes Atlantique Airport

Nantes Atlantique Airport (IATA: NTE, ICAO: LFRS) (French: Aéroport Nantes Atlantique, formerly known as Aéroport Château Bougon) is an international airport serving Nantes, France. It is located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) southwest of the city, in Bouguenais.[2]

Nantes Atlantique Airport

Aéroport Nantes Atlantique
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorAGO (Aéroports du Grand Ouest), a subsidiary of Vinci Airports
ServesNantes, France
LocationBouguenais, France
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL90 ft / 27 m
Coordinates47°09′25″N 001°36′28″W
Websitenantes.aeroport.fr
Maps
Location of Pays de la Loire region in France
Location of Pays de la Loire region in France
LFRS is located in Pays de la Loire
LFRS
LFRS
Location of airport in Pays de la Loire region
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
03/21 2,900 9,514 Asphalt concrete
Statistics (2019)
Passengers7,221,000 Increase 16.6%
Aircraft movements63,207 Increase
Source: French AIP[1]
French AIP at EUROCONTROL[2]

The airport is operated by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Nantes. In 2019, the airport handled 7,221,000 passengers, an increase of 16.6% compared to 2018.[3]

History

Nantes airport owes its origins to a military airfield, conceived in 1928 on part of the current site. In 1936/7, the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques de l'Ouest opened an aircraft factory adjacent to the airfield, initially building MB.210 bombers, followed by M.S.406 fighters and LeO 45 bombers. In 1939, the first paved runway was constructed, with a length of 900 m (2,953 ft).[4]

During World War II, the airfield was briefly used as a British Royal Air Force airfield before being captured by German forces. Under occupation, the aircraft factory was closed, and the airfield was used by the Luftwaffe as an airfield to bomb targets in England. As a consequence, the airfield was hit by a damaging air raid on 4 July 1943, which also destroyed the adjoining aircraft factory.[4]

After the war, the airfield was again put into service by the French Air Force. The aircraft factory was rebuilt, and has since built sections of the Vautour fighter and the Caravelle airliner, before becoming part of Airbus. In 1951, the first commercial operations started, with a new terminal built between 1954 and 1960 and runway extensions to cater for larger aircraft.[4]

Nantes Atlantique is currently the largest airport in the west of France. There were plans to have it replaced by an Aéroport du Grand Ouest, situated 30 km (19 mi) to the north-west of Nantes in the 'commune' of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The €580 million project was approved in February 2008, with plans to open it in 2017. However, after a nearly 40-year-long controversy regarding the usefulness and impact of such an airport, the project was officially cancelled on 17 January 2018.[5]

On 19 January 2019, a small 6-seater aircraft carrying Argentinian footballer Emiliano Sala left the airport for Cardiff, Wales. Both Sala and the pilot died when the plane crashed in the English Channel. Subsequent investigation showed that pilot David Ibbotson was not licensed to fly passengers on a commercial basis, nor for night flying, and that the aircraft was not airworthy.[6]

Facilities

The airport has a single 'L'-shaped passenger terminal, which is divided into four numbered halls. Halls 1 to 3 form the long side of the 'L' and are zones within the same two-story building, with baggage claim and check-in facilities on the ground floor, and departure lounges on the upper level. Hall 4 occupies a later single storey building at right angles to the earlier building, but connected to it by a lobby.

The airport also has a separate freight terminal, situated to the south of the passenger terminal, which includes 6,000 m2 (65,000 sq ft) of entrepôt storage. Also situated close to the passenger terminal is the Nantes factory of Airbus, which specialises in the construction of the centre wing box of the Airbus fleet of airliners and in the use of composite materials for creating structural components.[7][8]

Other facilities

Régional, a regional airline, was headquartered on the grounds of Nantes Atlantique Airport.[9] In 2013, the airline merged into HOP![10]

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Nantes Atlantique Airport:

AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines Seasonal: Athens, Heraklion
Aer Lingus Seasonal: Dublin[11]
Air Cairo Seasonal: Luxor[12]
Air France Lyon, Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Seasonal: Figari
Air Montenegro Seasonal: Podgorica[13]
Air Transat Seasonal: Montréal–Trudeau
Corsair International Seasonal: Fort-de-France
easyJet Agadir, Basel/Mulhouse, Geneva, Lanzarote, Lille, Lisbon, London–Gatwick, Lyon, Marrakesh, Milan–Malpensa, Nice, Porto, Rabat (begins 1 November 2023),[14] Rome–Fiumicino, Tenerife–South, Toulouse
Seasonal: Ajaccio, Bari, Bastia, Birmingham,[15] Bristol, Catania, Dubrovnik, Faro, Figari, Heraklion, Ibiza, Olbia
Iberia Madrid
KLM Amsterdam[16]
Lufthansa Frankfurt[17][18]
Nouvelair Djerba, Tunis
Seasonal: Monastir
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca
Ryanair Charleroi,[19] Dublin, Edinburgh, Fes, London–Stansted, Malta, Manchester, Marseille, Seville, Valencia
Seasonal: Agadir[20]
Sky Express Seasonal: Heraklion
Swiss International Air Lines Zurich
Tassili Airlines Algiers
Transavia Agadir, Algiers, Casablanca, Dakar–Diass, Faro, Funchal, Istanbul, Lisbon, Marrakech, Marseille, Monastir, Montpellier, Nice, Oran, Porto, Rome–Fiumicino, Toulon, Venice
Seasonal: Athens, Calvi, Djerba, Dubrovnik, Fes, Figari,[21] Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Hurghada (begins 11 November 2023), Menorca, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Reykjavík–Keflavík, Rhodes, Santorini, Split[22]
Volotea Athens, Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Lisbon,[23] Lyon, Madrid, Marrakesh,[23] Montpellier, Nice, Porto,[23] Prague, Rome–Fiumicino, Strasbourg, Stuttgart (begins 12 October 2023),[24] Tenerife–South, Toulouse, Venice, Vienna
Seasonal: Ajaccio, Alicante, Bastia, Bergamo,[25] Brindisi,[26] Cagliari, Calvi,[27] Catania,[28] Copenhagen,[29] Corfu, Dubrovnik, Faro, Figari, Florence,[30] Heraklion,[26] Kalamata,[23] Málaga, Menorca, Mykonos,[26] Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Perpignan, Pisa, Rhodes,[31] Santorini, Split, Varna, Zakynthos[32]
Vueling Barcelona, Málaga
Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca, Seville

Statistics
Annual passenger traffic at NTE airport. See Wikidata query.

Ground transportation

Nantes Atlantique Airport is located just outside the Périphérique de Nantes, the city's peripheral ring motorway, to which it is linked by a short access road. All the major roads and motorways to and from the city of Nantes intersect the 'périphérique'. Several car parks, both in the open and under cover, are located in the terminal area, with each car park having its own tariff.[33][34]

An express shuttle bus, the 'Navette Tan Air', links a stop outside the airport terminal to Nantes station and the city centre. The service forms part of Nantes's Tan public transport network, but charges a Tan Air fare, which is higher than the standard network fare, for the full journey. Alternatively, TAN bus route 38 can be used to reach Pirmil, and TAN bus route 98 can be used to reach Neustrie, where a connection can be made to line 3 of the Tan tram system, using standard network fares.[35][36]

References
  1. LFRS – NANTES ATLANTIQUE. AIP from French Service d'information aéronautique, effective 5 October 2023.
  2. EAD Basic
  3. (french only)
  4. Vallero, Luigi (July–August 2009). "France's Oceanic Gateway". Airports of the World. Key Publishing Ltd. pp. 64–67.
  5. https://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la-loire/notre-dame-des-landes-44130/notre-dame-des-landes-ce-qu-il-faut-retenir-de-l-annonce-d-edouard-philippe-5505933
  6. "Emiliano Sala: Pilot told friend doomed plane was 'dodgy'". BBC News. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  7. "FRET - Entreprises". CCI Nantes St-Nazaire. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  8. "Airbus France - Nantes". Airbus. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  9. "Contact Archived 2009-06-11 at the Wayback Machine." Régional. Retrieved 2 June 2009. "REGIONAL – Aéroport Nantes Atlantique 44345 BOUGUENAIS Cedex"
  10. "Air France Launches New Low-Cost Airline 'Hop!' Archived 2013-06-16 at archive.today." Reuters. 26 March 2013. Retrieved on 26 April 2013.
  11. "Aer Lingus". aerlingus.com.
  12. "AIR CAIRO 4Q22 NETWORK ADDITIONS SUMMARY – 13OCT22". aeroroutes.com. 13 October 2022.
  13. "Air Montenegro to launch three new routes".
  14. https://www.easyjet.com/en/routemap
  15. "EasyJet lance une nouvelle ligne entre Nantes et Birmingham".
  16. "KLM Resumes Nantes Service from late-Oct 2022".
  17. "Aktuelle Routennews".
  18. https://book.lufthansa.com/lh/dyn/air-lh/revenue/viewFlights
  19. "RYANAIR NS23 NETWORK ADDITIONS SUMMARY – 05FEB23".
  20. https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230918-frnw23
  21. "Grèce, France : Transavia muscle son programme".
  22. https://www.transavia.com/en-EU/book-a-flight/flights/search/
  23. "Volotea opens four new routes from Nantes and adds an eighth based aircraft" (in French).
  24. "Volotea s'alia amb Eurowings i llança vuit noves rutes amb Alemanya". 15 February 2023.
  25. "VOLOTEA - Vuelos baratos, ofertas y billetes de avión a Europa". 14 March 2023.
  26. "Nouvelles lignes Volotea vers Rome, Brindisi, Mykonos et Héraklion depuis Nantes". 30 December 2021.
  27. "Volotea ouvre une nouvelle ligne entre Calvi et Nantes".
  28. "Volotea annuncia la nuova rotta Catania-Nantes". 27 October 2022.
  29. "VOLOTEA - Vuelos baratos, ofertas y billetes de avión a Europa". 26 August 2022.
  30. "Volotea lancia una nuova rotta tra Firenze e Nantes". 20 October 2022.
  31. "News for Airlines, Airports and the Aviation Industry | CAPA".
  32. "Volotea to Launch Three New Services Between Greece and France". 12 January 2022.
  33. "Page d'accueil Parkings". CCI Nantes St-Nazaire. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
  34. "Location voiture". CCI Nantes St-Nazaire. Archived from the original on 17 September 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
  35. "Navettes aéroport" [Airport Shuttle] (in French). Aéroport de Nantes. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  36. "Navettes aéroport" [Airport Shuttle] (in French). Tan. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.

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