Saint-Exupéry International Airport

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Saint-Exupéry International Airport Aéroport Lyon Saint-Exupéry
Image:LFLL logo.png
IATA: LYS - ICAO: LFLL
Summary <tr><th colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">Airport type</th><td colspan="2" valign="top">Public</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">Serves</th><td colspan="2" valign="top">Lyon, France</td></tr>
Elevation AMSL		821 ft (250 m)
Coordinates		45°43′35″N, 5°05′27″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
18R/36L	13,124	4,000	Asphalt
18L/36R	8,760	2,670	Asphalt

Saint-Exupéry International Airport (French: Aéroport Lyon Saint-Exupéry) (IATA: LYS, ICAO: LFLL), formerly known as Lyon Satolas Airport, is an airport located near Lyon, France. The airport is named after the French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a native of Lyon.

It lies in Colombier-Saugnieu, 20 km to the east of Lyon. Its two runways are aligned north-south. It is an important transport facility for the entire Rhône-Alpes region. Coach links connect the airport with the centre of Lyon and other towns in the area including Chambéry and Grenoble, where airport capacity is limited by surrounding mountains.

The airport was inaugurated by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on 12 April 1975 and welcomed its first passengers a week later. It was designed to replace the old Lyon Bron airport which could not be extended as it lay in an urban area.

In 1994 a high-speed rail link brought the TGV to the airport, providing direct trains to Paris and Marseille. The fan-shaped canopy above the station is the airport's most notable architectural feature.

In 2000 the airport was renamed in honour of Lyonnais aviation pioneer and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

In 2005, the airport has welcome more than 6,5 million passengers, mostly on international lines, which makes it France fourth busiest airport after Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Nice airports.

In the future, the airport should be connected to the center of Lyon by a new express tram line, called Leslys.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Aer Lingus (Dublin)
Aigle Azur (Algiers, Constantine)
Air Algerie (Algiers, Annaba, Batna, Bejaia, Constantine, Oran)
Air Austral (Reunion)
Air France (Bologna, Bordeaux, Brussels, Casablanca, Clermont Ferrand, Milan-Malpensa, Nantes, Nice, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Toulouse, Tunis, Venice, Zurich)
- operated by Airlinair (Marseilles)
- operated by Brit Air (Barcelona, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Madrid, Montpellier, Munich, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly, Prague, Rome-Fiumicino, Strasbourg, Stuttgart)
Air Malta (Luqa)
Air Senegal International (Dakar)
Air Transat (Montréal, Toronto-Pearson)
Alitalia (Milan-Malpensa)
Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
Blue Air (Bucharest-Baneasa)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)
- operated by BA Connect (Birmingham, Manchester)
CCM Airlines (Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi)
City Airline (Gothenburg)
Corsairfly (Mauritius, Reunion)
Croatia Airlines (Split)
easyJet (London-Stansted, Madrid, Rome [Madrid and Rome start February 16, 2007])
Hex'Air (Castres, Rodez)
Iberia Airlines
- operated by Air Nostrum (Madrid)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
- operated by Lufthansa CityLine (Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich)
Malév Hungarian Airlines (Budapest)
Portugália (Lisbon, Porto)
Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca)
- Atlas Blue (Marrakesh)
Scandinavian Airlines System (Stockholm-Arlanda [Starts June 28, 2007])
- operated by Cimber Air (Copenhagen)
SN Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
Tassili Airlines (Algiers, Hassi Messaoud)
Tunisair (Djerba, Monastir, Tunis)
Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Atatürk)