Dinard Airport (DNR)

Dinard Airport is officially known as the Dinard-Pleurtuit-Saint Malo, due to its location, or as the Aéroport de Dinard-Pleurtuit, in French. This is one of the country’s smaller destinations, with under 200,000 passengers per annum, but is nonetheless an important gateway to the areas it serves. The airport is assigned the IATA code of DNR, and its ICAO code is listed as LFRD. The location is served by a couple of airline companies, which fly to a few destinations, and is equipped with all the facilities which can be expected..

The international airport of Dinard is located approximately 5km, or 3.1 miles to the south-southwest of the town of Dinard, and in the commune of Pleurtuit, hence its name of the Dinard-Pleurtuit. It serves this town, as well as the larger town of Saint-Malo just to the north-east, and other areas found in the Ille-et-Vilaine department of France. It is also particularly nearby the smaller areas of Le Bourgneuf, La Perrine, La Bois Chauchard, La ville Baslé, La Ville aux Monniers and Le Tertre És Salines. When looking at the country of France as a whole, Dinard Airport is said to be found nearby the northern coastline of Brittany, and north of Rennes and Nantes. To the west is Saint-Brieuc, Morlaix and Brest, and north-east is Caen and Rouen. The large city of Paris, the capital of France, is found to the west. All these areas, near and far, are easily accessible by the country’s excellent road network.

Roads of importance nearby the airport include the D64 leading to Saint-Lunaire the D266, and the D168 which crosses the inlet from the English Channel and provides access to the town of Saint-Malo. The D3 is also found to the west of the airport grounds. Dinard Airport is somewhat lacking in public transport options, without a very well advertised bus service and no train station, therefore many passengers hire a taxi or rent a car from one of the car hire companies for a way to travel to their next destination. The drive to Dinard is just seven minutes, to Saint-Malo about five minutes and to Rennes about forty-five minutes, depending on traffic conditions.

Pleurtuit Airport is served by the airline companies of Ryanair and Aurigny Air Services. It is therefore considered as a low-cost destination. The routes served by Ryanair are London-Stansted and East Midlands, in the United Kingdom. During the summer of 2011, this was the only flight offered directly to London from a Breton airport. This route is available once a day, and allows access to London in about an hour and five minutes. The route by Ryanair from Dinard to London experiences the fastest growth out of all routes served from the airport, and Ryanair has recently added even more flights to both London and East Midlands each week. Ryanair, considered as the world’s favourite low-cost carrier, has also recently introduced a new and free service for their passengers. It is called Flight Tracker, and allows frequent flyers to track their flights within an eighteen month period. The service is available on Ryanair’s website, http://www.ryanair.com, through ‘manage my booking’.

Aurigny Air Services operates flights to Guernsey, an island in the English Channel about 101km from Dinard. Further connections are available to London-Gatwick, Manchester, Jersey and Alderney. This route from Aurigny Air Services has been flown since 1986, and there are one or two flights per day throughout the year. The direct flights to Guernsey are scheduled on the Trislander, with fourteen seats. In 2010, Dinard Airport had a total of 122,270 passengers, but the most recent year looks more promising, as traffic was up by 8% at the end of September. However, in previous years, DNR was handling closer to 200,000 passengers per year. 2005 and 2008 were the busiest years, with between 175,000 and 205,000 passengers. In 2009, passenger traffic dropped to 136,000, and in 2010, down to 122,000. With an increase expected in 2011, perhaps commercial traffic is starting to increase once again.

The airport has three runways, one of which is considered as the main one, 2,100 metres in length and 45 metres wide. It is capable of handling aircraft the size of the Boeing 737-800 and the Airbus A320. The second runway is 1,435 metres long, and 45 metres wide, while the third is just a tufted runway, 200 metres in length. For arriving and departing passengers, there is a single terminal building, with a total area of approximately 1,400 square metres, and capable of handling up to two hundred and fifty thousand passengers per annum. There is a public parking area of 49,000 square metres, aircraft hangers of 600 square metres and Dinard airport covers a total area of 304 hectares of land.

Within the terminal building, there is a bar/restaurant in the public area, and on the first floor of the building. The restaurant is accessed by an impressive marble staircase, and offers lovely views over the runways. There aren’t really any shops available, and no banking, currency exchange services or ATMs. There are, however, public toilets with some accessible to disabled passengers, public payphones, a letter box and lost luggage services. There is a lift for passengers in wheelchairs who need to access the first floor, and pavement ramps for easier access to the entrance of the building. Further assistance for disabled passengers is available from the airline companies of the airport.

Dinard Airport information in further detail is available from the general information desk in the terminal building.