France's Aéroports de Paris (ADP) airport authority is embarking on a five year programme of heavy investment at Charles de Gaulle (CDG), its main base and Air France's increasingly successful hub.
As it opened the first half of the new terminal 2F at the airport on 27 March, ADP president Jean Fleury revealed that up to Fr15 billion ($2.5 billion) would be spent on further developments to CDG over the period 1998-2002, beginning with the two new runways announced in September 1997.
Further ahead, the authority plans another new terminal, 2E, destined for Air France's exclusive use, to be opened in 2003 at a cost of Fr6 billion. Terminal 9 will also be doubled in size and a new pier added to terminal 2A for long-range aircraft. A new cargo terminal for FedEx is also under construction.
Spending has run at about Fr2 billion a year over the past two years and will now average Fr3 billion over the next five. Passenger traffic in 1997 rose by 11%, to 35.2 million, but the new terminals will take capacity to around 42 million.
ADP's Orly had an 8% traffic decline in 1997, handling just over 25 million passengers, partly because of strikes at Air Liberté and AOM.
Source: Flight International
