Charles de Gaulle Airport |
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Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG) (French: Aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), in the Paris area, is one of the world's principal aviation centres, as well as France's main International Airport. It is named after Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), leader of the Free French Forces and founder of the French Fifth Republic. It is located within portions of several communes, 25 km (16 mi) to the north-east of Paris. The airport serves as the principal hub for Air France and a small hub for Delta Air Lines.
In 2008, Charles de Gaulle Airport handled 60,851,998 passengers and 559,812 aircraft movements, making it the world's fifth busiest airport in terms of passengers, and Europe's second busiest (world's 8th busiest) airport after London Heathrow airport in terms of aircraft movements. In terms of cargo traffic, the airport is the busiest in Europe and the world's 7th busiest, having handled 2,280,049 metric tonnes of cargo.
Charles de Gaulle Airport extends over 32.38 km2 (12.50 sq mi) of land. The choice of this vast area was made based on the limited number of potential relocations and expropriations and the possibility to further expand the airport in the future. It straddles three départements and six communes: