Nantes Atlantique Airport
Nantes Atlantique Airport
Nantes Atlantique Airport (IATA:
NTE, ICAO: LFRS) (French: Aéroport Nantes Atlantique, formerly known as
Aéroport Château Bougon) is an international airport serving Nantes, France. It
is located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) southwest of the city, in Bouguenais.
The airport is operated by the
Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Nantes. It is currently the third largest
airport in the west of France (after Toulouse-Blagnac and Bordeaux-Mérignac),
with a maximum capacity of three million passengers a year. In 2017, the
airport handled 5,489,000 passengers, an increase of 14.9% compared to 2016.
History
Nantes airport owes its origins
to a military airfield, conceived in 1928 on part of the current site. In
1936/7 the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques de l'Ouest opened
an aircraft factory adjacent to the airfield, initially building MB.210
bombers, followed by M.S.406 fighters and LeO 45 bombers. In 1939 the first
paved runway was constructed, with a length of 900 m (2,953 ft).
During World War II the airfield
was briefly used as a British Royal Air Force airfield before being captured by
German forces. Under occupation the aircraft factory was closed, and the
airfield was used by the Luftwaffe as an airfield to bomb targets in England.
As a consequence, the airfield was hit by a damaging air raid on 4 July 1943,
which also destroyed the adjoining aircraft factory.
After the war the airfield was
again put into service by the French Air Force. The aircraft factory was
rebuilt, and has since built sections of the Vautour fighter and the Caravelle
airliner, before becoming part of Airbus. In 1951 the first commercial
operations started, with a new terminal built between 1954 and 1960 and runway
extensions to cater for larger aircraft.
Nantes Atlantique is currently
the largest airport in the west of France. There were plans to have it replaced
by an Aéroport du Grand Ouest, situated 30 km (19 mi) to the north-west of
Nantes in the 'commune' of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The €580 million project was
approved in February 2008, with plans to open it in 2017. However, after a
nearly 40-year-long controversy regarding the usefulness and impact of such an
airport, the project was officially cancelled on 17 January 2018.
Facilities
The airport has a single 'L'
shaped passenger terminal, which is divided into four numbered halls. Halls 1
to 3 form the long side of the 'L' and are zones within the same two story
building, with baggage claim and check-in facilities on the ground floor, and
departure lounges on the upper level. Hall 4 occupies a later single story
building at right angles to the earlier building, but connected to it by a
lobby.
The airport also has a separate
freight terminal, situated to the south of the passenger terminal, which
includes 6,000 m2 (65,000 sq ft) of entrepôt storage. Also situated close to
the passenger terminal is the Nantes factory of Airbus, which specialises in
the construction of the centre wing box of the Airbus fleet of airliners and in
the use of composite materials for creating structural components.
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