Lyon–Saint Exupéry Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport de Lyon-Saint Exupéry), formerly known as ''Lyon Satolas Airport'' , is the

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

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 ...

, the third-biggest city in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and an important transport facility for the entire

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ARA; ; frp, Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Ârpes; oc, Auvèrnhe Ròse Aups; it, Alvernia-Rodano-Alpi) is a region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Au ...

region. It lies in

Colombier-Saugnieu Colombier-Saugnieu () is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France. Since 2008, Pierre Marmonier has been the mayor of Colombier-Saugnieu. He was re-elected in the 2020 municipal elections. Geography The river Bourbre forms part of ...

, southeast of Lyon's city centre. The airport is directly linked to Lyon-Part-Dieu Business District thanks to the Rhônexpress shuttle's 30-minute ride.

History

Early years

The airport was inaugurated by President

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...

on 12 April 1975 and opened to passengers a week later. It was designed to replace the old

Lyon–Bron Airport Lyon–Bron Airport (french: Aéroport de Lyon-Bron) is an airport located in Bron, east of Lyon, both communes of the Rhône department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. History The airport was established in 1920 and beca ...

, which is now only used for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

. In 1994 the

LGV Rhône-Alpes The LGV Rhône-Alpes (French: ''Ligne à Grande Vitesse''; English: high-speed line) is a French high-speed rail line situated in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region which extends the LGV Sud-Est southwards. Opened to service in 1994, the line b ...

high-speed rail line brought

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

service to the airport, providing direct trains to Paris and

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

. The fan-shaped canopy of the

Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry Gare is the word for "station" in French and related languages, commonly meaning railway station Gare can refer to: People * Gare (surname), surname * The Gare Family, fictional characters in the novel '' Wild Geese'' by Martha Ostenso Places * ...

, designed by architect

Santiago Calatrava Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, particularly known for his bridges supported by single leaning pylons, and his railway stations, stadiums, and museums, whose sculpt ...

, is the airport's most notable

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

feature. Since 1997, the airport has been a

focus city An airline hub or hub airport is an airport used by one or more airlines to concentrate passenger traffic and flight operations. Hubs serve as transfer (or stop-over) points to help get passengers to their final destination. It is part of the ...

for the airline

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

Development since the 2000s

The airport was originally named ''Lyon Satolas Airport'', after the nearby eponymous village, but in 2000 the airport and train station were renamed in honour of Lyonnais aviation pioneer and writer

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...

, on the centenary of his birth. He was a native of Lyon, and a laureate of the

Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française Le Grand Prix du Roman is a French literary award, created in 1914, and given each year by the Académie française. Along with the Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French litera ...

, and died in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 2013, the airport served 8,562,298 passengers, an increase of 1.3% over the previous year. Air freight increased by 22.7% to 44,820 tonnes, although overall aircraft movements dropped by 2.8% to 113,420.

Facilities

The airport consists of passenger terminals ''1'' and ''2'' which are interconnected on the landside by a central building that itself has a foot-bridge to the nearby

high-speed railway station and the

Rhônexpress Rhônexpress is an express tram-train service which links central Lyon, France, with its airport, Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, and the TGV train station located there. The route is long, and served by six tram-train sets, built by Swiss man ...

terminus.lyonaeroports.com - Find your way around the airport
retrieved 6 December 2018 The airport also features two runways as well as cargo facilities. A total of 16,000 car spaces in four car parks (P2-P5) are available. Two of the parks are underground (P2 and P3) while the long-stay parks (P4 and P5) are located at a distance from the terminals behind the railway station.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 consists of two parts: The older one is a two-storey, slightly curved brick shape building contains the check-in areas 11, 12, 14, 18 and 19 as well as departure areas G and F on the upper level with the arrivals on the ground level. In 2014, Aéroports de Lyon started the construction of a new terminal expansion, which doubled the capacity and the area, with 70,000 m². Four groups took part in the tender process to design and develop the expanded Terminal 1. The bid was won by the GFC Construction company in partnership with Quille Construction (

Bouygues Bouygues S.A. () is a French industrial group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext, Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip (stock market), blue chip in the C ...

) and Bouygues Energies & Services. The architectural practice was

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Rogers may refer to: Places Canada *Rogers Pass (British Columbia) * Rogers Island (Nunavut) United States * Rogers, Arkansas, a city * Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement * Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated communit ...

led by

Graham Stirk Graham Carl Stirk (born 8 January 1957) is an architect and senior partner at RSHP. He joined the Richard Rogers Partnership in 1983 and by 2007 the name of the practice changed to Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to reflect his contribution to ...

, Chabanne and Partners, engineers

Technip Technip S.A. was a company that carried out project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry; in 2017 it completed a merger with FMC Technologies to form TechnipFMC. Its headquarters were in the 16th arrondissement of Pa ...

TPS and Cap Ingélec, and Inddigo. The expanded Terminal 1 opened in June 2018. It has a circular shape with check-in area 10 and additional arrivals facilities on the ground level and departure gates B and C on both upper levels. It is also connected by a tunnel to a small satellite building containing the D gates, now mainly used by

easyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...

and

Transavia France Transavia Airlines S.A.S., trading as Transavia France and formerly branded as ''transavia.com France'', is a French low-cost airline owned by Air France S.A. & Transavia Airlines C.V. based at Paris-Orly Airport. It shares its corporate desig ...

, while the other areas serve

Star Alliance Star Alliance is the world's largest global airline alliance. Founded on 14 May 1997, its CEO is Jeffrey Goh and its headquarters is located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. , Star Alliance is the largest of the three global alliances by passenger ...

carriers and

Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country * Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir ** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf ** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates * The Emirat ...

, among others.

Terminal 2

Terminal 2 is a duplicate of the older part of Terminal 1, containing check-in areas 20 and 21 with boarding areas Q and P on the upper and arrivals facilities on the lower level. This terminal area is mainly used by

Terminal 3 ''(defunct)''

The former Terminal 3 was a very basic facility used by

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

s. It was demolished during Terminal 1 expansion. The satellite building is still open, however; it now houses the ‘D’ gates for low cost airlines such as easyJet.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Ground transportation

Rail

The

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

way began operations in August 2010 and links

Gare de Lyon-Part-Dieu Gare de la Part-Dieu (literally "Property of God" railway station) is the primary railway station of Lyon's Central Business District in France. It belongs to the Paris-Lyon-Marseille railway. Train services are mainly operated by SNCF with f ...

east of Lyon's city centre with

next to the airport in approximately 30 minutes using and sharing existing tracks of the

Lyon tramway The Lyon tramway (french: Tramway de Lyon) comprises eight lines, seven lines operated by TCL and one by Rhônexpress in the city of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The original tramway network in Lyon was developed in 1879, and the moder ...

as well as a newly constructed route. This tramway replaced the former coach shuttle services (Satobus) that operated beforehand leaving the airport with no other public connections to the city centre. The Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry station is also served by the

high speed rail line.

Coach

Coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

links connect the airport with the centre of other towns in the area including

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

(at least once an hour),

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

and

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambér ...

. Bus operators also offer a coach shuttle service to the surrounding French ski resorts, including Tignes, Val d'Isere, Val Thorens and more. Since January 2020, two buses from

Transports en commun lyonnais The Transports en commun lyonnais ("Lyon public transport" in French; usually referred to as TCL) is the Lyon public transport agency. It is the second largest public transport system in France (after Paris), and covers 73 communes, including all ...

are stopping at the airport:
- The bus 47, from

Meyzieu Meyzieu (; frp, Mêsiô) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. It is a large suburb of Lyon, situated 13 km east of the city centre on the left bank of the Rhône. Before 1967, it was part of t ...

, connecting with Tram line 3 (from Gare Part-Dieu) to

Saint-Laurent-de-Mure Saint-Laurent-de-Mure () is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France. Saint-Laurent-de-Mure forms part of the communauté de communes (grouping of villages) in the eastern Lyons area which support one another to provide improved ser ...

, connecting with Bus line 1E (from Grange Blanche) via the airport. The line operates 7 days a week, from 5:30am to 11:45pm, every 30 minutes.
- The bus 48, from

Genas Genas () is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.Commune de Genas (69277 ...

to the airport.

Electric car service

The airport has an electric car sharing station.

Bolloré Bluecar The Bolloré Bluecar is a small four-seat, three-door electric car supplied by Bolloré, designed by Pininfarina and manufactured by Cecomp in Bairo, Italy, under a joint venture owned by Bolloré and Pininfarina called Véhicule Électriques Pini ...

vehicles are available for rent.

References

External links

*
Aéroport de Lyon-Saint Exupéry
(Union des aéroports français) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon-Saint Exupery Airport Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in France Airports established in 1975 Airports in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Buildings and structures in Rhône (department) Transport in Lyon World War II airfields in France 1975 establishments in France