Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport (french: Aéroport de Le Touquet - Côte d'Opale) is east-southeast of

Le Touquet Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (; pcd, Ech Toutchet-Paris-Plache; vls, 't Oekske, older nl, Het Hoekske), commonly referred to as Le Touquet (), is a commune near Étaples, in the Pas-de-Calais department, northern France. It has a population of ...

, a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

of the Pas-de-Calais department on the coast of northern France. In September 2022, it was announced by Emmanuel Macron that the airport would be renamed in honour of Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

. The passenger terminal is open from 09:00-20:00 hours. There are three flying clubs and most of them also give flying lessons; two of them are helicopter schools and clubs.

Airlines and destinations

As of November 2018, there are no more scheduled services after the only operator, LyddAir, ceased its route to Lydd.

Statistics

Accidents and incidents

* On 2 May 1981, Aer Lingus Flight 164, a

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

carrying 108 passengers and crew, was hijacked on a flight from

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinstown, north of Dublin, and south of ...

in Ireland to

London Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

in the United Kingdom. The hijacker had the pilots fly the aircraft to Le Touquet where it then stood for nearly 10 hours before French armed forces troops stormed the aircraft and apprehended the suspect. No one was killed or injured.

Appearances in media

* Le Touquet airport is featured in the

Microsoft Flight Simulator X ''Microsoft Flight Simulator X'' (abbreviated as ''FSX'') is a 2006 flight simulation video game originally developed by Aces Game Studio and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to '' Microsoft Flight ...

mission ''Flying Blind Across The Channel'', in which the player flies a

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.Manston Airport Manston Airport was a British airport. It was branded as Manston, Kent International Airport and was located in the parish of Minster-in-Thanet and partly adjacent to the village of Manston in the Thanet district of Kent, England, north-eas ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, UK on a foggy day using

instrument flight rules In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument Fly ...

References

External links

''Aéroport Le Touquet Côte d'Opale''
- official site
''Aéroport de Le Touquet - Côte d'Opale'' (LTQ / LFAT)
at ''Union des Aéroports Français'' * Airports in Hauts-de-France Le Touquet {{France-airport-stub