Albert – Picardie Airport (french: Aéroport d'Albert - Picardie) , sometimes referred to as Albert – Picardy Airport, 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 surfa ...

serving

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

, 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 Somme department in the Picardy (''Picardie'')

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 an ...

of northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The airport is located southeast of Albert, in Bray-sur-Somme. It is primarily used for the transportation of

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...

aircraft parts from the company's factory at

Méaulte Méaulte () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The commune is situated on the D329 road, some northeast of Amiens. Population Personalities * Henry Potez (1891–1981), aeroplane maker, w ...

nearby. The airport's runway is large enough to accommodate Airbus'

Beluga The beluga whale (/bɪˈluːɡə/) (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. It is also known as the wh ...

, a large

cargo aircraft A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger ...

used to courier parts used in the construction of its own commercial jets. The airport is also home to a

flying club A flying club or aero club is a not-for-profit, member-run organization that provides its members with affordable access to aircraft. Many clubs also provide flight training, flight planning facilities, pilot supplies and associated services, as ...

, which has a number of

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are used as utility aircraft co ...

based at the airfield; and to a society engaging in historic aircraft. The British low-cost carrier

Jet2.com Jet2.com Limited is a British low-cost leisure airline offering scheduled and charter flights from the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is the third-largest scheduled airline in the UK, behind EasyJet and British Airways. Jet2 is also officia ...

announced and then cancelled a twice-weekly service to the Somme using this airport; flights were to start in April 2009. On 28 January 2012, plans were unveiled to launch a twice-weekly service to

Blackpool International Airport Blackpool Airport is an airport on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, England, in the Borough of Fylde, just outside the Borough of Blackpool. It was formerly known as Squires Gate Airport and Blackpool International Airport. Ownership of the ai ...

with

Danish Air Transport DAT A/S, formerly named ''Danish Air Transport'', is a Danish airline headquartered in Vamdrup, Kolding Municipality, operating scheduled and chartered passenger and cargo flights mainly from airports in Denmark. History DAT was founded as ' ...

using

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR (french: Avions de transport régional or it, Aerei da Trasporto Regionale), a joint venture formed ...

s, however before the flights started, the route was cancelled. At the end of 2013, a service to Toulouse, Dole and Nice was introduced under the "IGAvion" brand. The flights were operated by

Skytaxi SkyTaxi Sp. z o.o. is a Polish charter airline headquartered in Wrocław and based at Copernicus Airport Wrocław. It operates cargo charter flights world wide. SkyTaxi also operated passenger flights, i.e. scheduled regional services within Franc ...

with

Saab 340 The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30-36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 different o ...

aircraft.

History

The aerodrome was first created to serve the aircraft factory of

Henry Potez Henry Potez ( Méaulte, 30 September 1891 – Paris, 9 November 1981) was a French aircraft industrialist. He studied in the French Aeronautics School '' Supaéro''. With Marcel Dassault, he was the inventor of the Potez-Bloch propeller which, a ...

, around 1924. The factory (a short distance from the current airport) was later merged, successively, into

SNCAN SNCAN, (abbreviated from ''Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Nord''), or commonly, Nord, was a state-owned French aircraft manufacturer in the pre- and post- World War II era. The company had been formed as one of six state ...

Nord Aviation Nord-Aviation ( en, Northern Aviation) was a state-owned French aircraft manufacturer. The bulk of its facilities were based on the site of Bourges airport, in the département of Cher, in central France. On 1 October 1954, Nord Aviation was cr ...

, Aerospatiale, and finally

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 § Ver ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has one 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, concre ...

designated 09/27 which measures . It also has a parallel unpaved

with a

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 a ...

surface measuring .; it is mainly used by the local glider club.

Statistics

References

External links

''Aéroport Albert Picardie''
official site * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albert - Picardie Airport Airports in Hauts-de-France Buildings and structures in Somme (department)