FLUG REVUE August 2003: Paris Airport opens new terminal

CDG AIRPORT OPENS TERMINAL 2E

By Sebastian Steinke

The formula sounds tempting: take a large, geographically well situated European metropolis with a strong domestic market, add an international, self-assured airline with a global route network, hub concept and its “own” airline alliance, and combine all of these with a generously proportioned hub airport based on the Atlanta model, European TGV high-speed rail link and significant reserves of land. The result is an airport after the model of the Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG).

Paris Airport, Terminal 2E

If in the early days following its foundation in 1974 (Terminal 1) this airport to the north-east of the capital city was the subject of ridicule on account of its apparently excessively grand scale, this former disdain has given way to the recognition that Germany's neighbour to the west is slowly and systematically preparing to take over the lead in continental Europe, with CDG in direct competition to Frankfurt. In the last week of June, CDG's sixth large handling area, Terminal 2E, entered service.

At the opening press conference, Air France's chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta stated that the new transfer building represented a qualitative improvement for the SkyTeam alliance: “Terminal 2E is one of the biggest strengths in the development strategy of the alliance. The opening of these new facilities will strengthen the capability of our hub in Paris and offer passengers travelling through Paris easier access to the SkyTeam global route network.”

Along with Air France, the new handling area will be used from the start by four other SkyTeam members, AeroMexico, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air, while Alitalia will be situated in Terminal 2F directly opposite. Spinetta added, “Since its foundation three years ago, SkyTeam has never ceased to guarantee its customers a high-quality, uniform service. The opening of Terminal 2E underlines this strategy.”

If the Paris airport planners seemed for a long time to be optimising their buildings solely for traffic originating or terminating in the capital city, with the shortest possible routes between car and aircraft, a far-reaching change of concept gained the upper hand by the 1990s at the latest with the building of Terminal 2F. The Paris regional RER railway, the French TGV high-speed trains (with routes to the north, south and west) and their Thalys cousin reaching further towards the east all come to a halt literally underneath the terminal, bringing additional streams of traffic, especially from Brussels, overland to the biggest airport of Paris. Unlike British Airways, which currently is concentrating on the original British business travel segment, Air France has always had the nearby German market in its sights.

Today transfer passengers are an important customer group for the French, who last year handled 48.3 million passengers in CDG (23.1 million in Orly), 34.8 million of them in terminal area 2, with 30.9 million of these handled in turn by Air France. The newly opened western area of Terminal 2E can now handle six million passengers per year, and this is expected to rise to ten million in the final stage of the expansion. Together with the planned S3 passenger handling satellites, transfer terminals E and F will then one day be able to handle up to 29 million passengers per year.

The new Terminal 2E, built by the airport operating company Aéroports de Paris (ADP) at a cost of €750 million, is positioned in a line of buildings that includes the older Terminals 2A and 2C and is across the way from Terminal 2F, with which it has in common the same design aesthetics and the lion's share of 70 percent of CDG's transit traffic. Designed in a novel H-shape, the relatively large handling building 2E offers not only a 450m long, 70m wide hall along the road frontage containing the check-in zone but also a second, 650m long and 30m wide section of the building out onto the apron, with parking positions for 17 aircraft, including the future A380.

Passengers' luggage will initially be moved on a temporary transport system until at the end of 2004 a new, computer-controlled facility that can handle up to 23 million items of baggage per year and transit times of 45 minutes is commissioned. 100 percent of baggage will be x-rayed right from the start, however.

From the autumn of 2003 passengers entering the new Terminal 2E from the road frontage, the stations or from the multi-storey car park that is shared with Terminal 2F will in addition be greeted by a check-in adviser carrying a portable, wireless computer. This “T'aTou” (“You have everything”) will not only register passengers' arrival times and their planned takeoff times, but it will also co-ordinate the urgency of their check-in so that if necessary they can be assigned to special, express queues. Moreover, in cases of overbooking, passengers will be offered the possibility of compensation if they volunteer to take an alternative flight.

In the normal case, however, passengers will initially proceed to one of 52 check-in counters in Terminal 2E. This number is to be extended to 156 counters, following which the obligatory passport and security checkpoints will move into the narrow connecting crosspiece of the H-shaped building. Passengers travelling with only hand luggage will be able to check themselves in in a matter of only 30 seconds at one of 16 electronic automatic check-in positions.

Information technology plays a prominent role in the new terminal. 400 wide-area flat screens mounted at good vantage points will continuously monitor passengers and staff across the check-in processes. Another feature, much celebrated at Air France, will be data on individual flights, for example, details of the films showing, the names of the crew and, naturally, the in-flight menu.

Then there is the wireless computer network belonging to a subsidiary of the airport operator, ADP Télécom. This radio data network will provide passengers with multi-lingual departure, traffic and weather information free of charge, which it will be possible to retrieve along with layout plans and restaurant recommendations from any suitably equipped computer via adp.fr, boutiques.adp.fr and voyages.adp.fr. At the same time it will also offer fee-based additional services, such as internet access and facilities for sending and receiving e-mail.

New, spacious lounges are available for passengers to while away any waiting time. SkyTeam collectors of air miles with the status “Elite Plus” will be allowed to use the 1800m2 business lounge for 368 passengers, while a separate 250m2 lounge accommodating 48 passengers has been laid on for passengers in First Class. Both lounges are shortly to be fitted with wireless internet connections. Air France has spent €50 million on the interior design of the new terminal, which will bring with it 900 jobs.

From page 68 of FLUG REVUE 8/2003

Last updated 7 July 2003

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