Brive–Souillac Airport , also ''Brive–Dordogne Valley Airport'' (), is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

located south of

Brive-la-Gaillarde Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of ), commonly known as simply Brive, is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the aggl ...

, a '' commune'' of the

Corrèze Corrèze (; ) is a département in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, on the bo ...

department in the

Nouvelle-Aquitaine Nouvelle-Aquitaine () is the largest Regions of France, administrative region in France by area, spanning the west and southwest of Metropolitan France. The region was created in 2014 by the merging of Aquitaine, Limousin, and Poitou-Charentes ...

region of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The airport caters for tourist movements into the

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...

area.

History

The idea for the new airport started in 1983 when the existing Brive–La Roche Airport, west of the Brive-la-Gaillarde CBD became unsuitable for modern aircraft and safety standards. By 1987, 200ha of land was found between Nespouls and Cressensac. A

syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndic ...

was formed between the mayors of Brive-la-Gaillarde, Jean Charbonnel and Souillac, Alain Chastagnol to push for the project's creation. A 1998 plan was updated in 2001 when a decision was made to extend the runway from 1.9 km to 2.1 km prior to construction, rather than extend it sometime in the future after the project had been completed. The project was delayed by court cases, politicians and environmental organisations such as the commune of Turenne and Query Périgord and candidates for d’Europe Écologie in the European Parliamentary elections. Most regarded it as a large international project that could not be managed on a local scale, while other concerns included the effect on public finances, opposition from Limoges Airport, noise pollution and a colony of the

large blue The large blue (''Phengaris arion'') is a species of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. The species was first defined in 1758 and first recorded in Britain in 1795. In 1979 the species became mostly extinct in Britain but has been successfully ...

butterfly. Earthworks began in October 2005 and continued until spring 2007 as the 200ha limestone site needed to be levelled and filled. 2.8 million m3 of earth was moved during these earthworks. The runway, 2.1 km long and 45m wide, was laid down in 2008, as were taxiways and aprons, while the building work for the airport control tower and buildings was underway in 2009. The official inauguration was on 15 June 15, 2010. Its

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...

code LFSL was previously assigned to the military Toul-Rosières Air Base, which closed in 2004. The

Airlinair Société Airlinair, simply known as Airlinair, was a French regional airline based in Rungis, France, operating scheduled regional flights (some of which were on behalf of Air France), and aircraft lease services. The airline has set up bases ...

(

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 2012 after the merger of Airlinair, Brit Air and Régional brands. Its hea ...

) flights to and from Paris–Orly airport were transferred to this airport.

Funding

The project cost €48.7 million. €27.7 was raised by the Syndicate supported by the Department of the Correze, with the EU, French state and regional government providing €11.8. The rest was funded by the Department of the Lot, regional towns, chambers of commerce and agriculture.

Facilities

The airport resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has one paved

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

designated 11/29 which measures . It also has a parallel unpaved runway with a

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

surface measuring . In addition to the main terminal that handles both international and local passengers, there is a VIP and business aviation building as well as facilities for private flying clubs. The car park has capacity for 250 cars and is open 24 hours. The airport has taxi access and car rental facilities managed by

Europcar Europcar Mobility Group is a French car rental company founded in 1949 in Paris. The head office of the holding company, Europcar Group S.A., is in the business park of Val Saint-Quentin at Voisins-le-Bretonneux (Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), Fr ...

and

Hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or Cycle per second, cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in ter ...

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Brive–Souillac Airport:

Statistics

Up to 2010: stats for the old airport; stats from 2010 are for this airport:

References

External links

*
L'Aéroport Brive-Vallée de la Dordogne : désenclavement et développement économique du territoire
at ''Communauté d'Agglomération de Brive'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brive-Souillac Airport Airports in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Buildings and structures in Corrèze Airports established in 2010 21st-century architecture in France