Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne Airport (french: Aéroport de Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne) is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

serving the French city of

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...

. It is located east of the city, in

Aulnat Aulnat () is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. Population See also *Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department The following is a list of the 464 communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department of Fr ...

, both ''

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

'' of the

Puy-de-Dôme Puy-de-Dôme (; oc, label=Auvergnat, lo Puèi de Doma or ''lo Puèi Domat'') is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the centre of France. In 2019, it had a population of 662,152.department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in the

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of France, in the middle of France. It is the main airport of the Auvergne region, the others are Aurillac airport and Le-Puy-en-Velay airport. In 2013, the airport handled 416,600 passengers making it the 29th busiest airport in France.

History

In 1916 the first hard runway was built on this site (now runway 08/26), the first terminal would open at the airport in 1937. The terminal had a size 200m². In 1975 the runway was extended to its current 3,015 m. A year later in 1976 the airport had a category 3 ILS system installed. The current terminal was built in 1992. The airport used to be the hub of

Regional Airlines A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...

, an important regional airline in France. Regional Airlines was bought by Air France in 2000 and Air France moved Regional's hub (now

Hop! Air France Hop, formerly branded HOP!, is a French regional airline operating flights on behalf of its parent company Air France. The airline was founded on 21 December 2012http://www.verif.com/societe/HOP!-790151716/ after the merger of Airlin ...

) to the airport of Lyon St Exupéry, about a hundred kilometers away. Over 1 million passengers went to Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne airport in 2002, with more than 30 destinations in France and in Europe. More recently, there were only 14 destinations at the airport and 400,295 passengers in 2015.

Facilities

The airport resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 08/26 which measures , plus two

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

runways: one parallel to 08/26 which measures and one designated 01/19 which measures . The passenger terminal is 17 600 m2 large.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Clermont-Ferrand:

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Incidents

* On 28 December 1971,

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The Visc ...

F-BOEA of

Air Inter Air Inter (Lignes Aériennes Intérieures) was a semi-public French domestic airline. Before its merger with Air France, the airline was headquartered in Paray-Vieille-Poste, Essonne.''World Airline Directory''. Flight International. 26 March-1 Apr ...

was damaged beyond economic repair when it departed the runway on a training flight during a simulated failure of #4 engine. * On 27 October 1972,

Flight 696, Vickers Viscount 724 F-BMCH, en route from

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

to Clermont-Ferrand, crashed 4 km west of Noirétable during bad weather; 60 on board died, 8 survived. The subsequent investigation determined that the accident was caused by the flight crew's failure to notice that their plane's

radio compass Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio station ...

had shifted 180

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

s, most likely the result of electrical discharges in the rainstorm they were flying through. The crew may have followed the erroneous reading as they attempted to fly an approach pattern using Clermont-Ferrand's

non-directional beacon A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are ...

(NDB). The aircraft descended too early and struck a mountain east of the airport.

References

External links

Airport website

Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne Airport
(official site - corporate)
Aéroport de Clermont-Ferrand - Auvergne
(Union des Aéroports Français) * {{Airports in France, state=collapsed Airports in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Buildings and structures in Puy-de-Dôme