Perpignan Airport (PGF)

Perpignan Airport serves the southern region of France, nearby the Spanish border. Its passengers travel to and from many of the towns in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of the country. Officially, due to its location nearby the two communes, the airport is named as the Perpignan-Rivesaltes, but may also be referred to as the Llabanère. It has been allocated the unique IATA code of PGF, and its ICAO code is listed as LFMP. A handful of important airline companies operate their services from here
, and for passengers, there are several useful facilities within the terminal.

The airport has the physical address of Avenue Maurice Bellonte, Perpignan, 66000, and is located approximately 5km, or 3 miles from the centre of the city. Although a small airport, it has an important location, serving the centre of the Euroregion, the famous triangle consisting of Montpellier, Toulouse and Barcelona and is the logical link between northern and southern Europe. Salvador Dali once described Perpignan as the ‘centre of the world’. The city is the capital of the Pyrénees-Orientales department, and is part of the famous Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, which ranks as the third most popular for tourism. Forty kilometres south is the border of Spain, beyond which are the cities of Figueres, Girona and Barcelona, and northeast and northwest of the airport are the French cities of Narbonne, Beziers, Montpellier, Nimes, Carcassonne and Toulouse. Closer to the location are the areas of Salses-le-Château and Rivesaltes in the north, Canet-en-Roussillon in the east, Baho and Millas to the west and Elne, Le Boulou and Argelès-sur-Mer are found south of the city. Perpignan airport to the north of the city is particularly nearby to Baixas, Peyrestortes, Saint-Estève and Pia.

Perpignan Airport can easily be accessed by road, as the A9 Autoroute is just a five to ten minute drive from the terminal. This road stretches north towards Narbonne, as well as south into Spain, and passes the city of on its western side. The access road is the D5G, and the D117 and D900 are other important access roads. Buses and taxis serve the airport as well, and are both a convenient way to reach the location, or travel to a following destination. The buses depart from the Gare de Perpignan, or the Train Station, and stop at the main bus station along the way, which is nearby to the railway station. Since that it is only a small airport, it does not have its own train station.

Scheduled routes to Paris operate all year round, and are operated by the airline companies of Air France and Air France operated by Brit Air. These flights land at the Paris-Orly, the second largest airport in France. The majority of passengers at Perpignan Airport are national, however, a significant number fly internationally as well. The other main airline companies include Aer Lingus, Flybe, Ryanair and Bmibaby, and they offer flights (some seasonal) to Dublin, Birmingham, Southampton, the London-Stansted, Manchester and Charleroi. A number of charter airline companies serve holiday destinations as well. Passenger traffic has decreased somewhat in 2010, as the year ended with only 363,662 passengers. In previous years, the airport handled over 400,000 passengers. The busiest years were in 2006 and 2008, when it handled almost and just over 450,000 passengers. Perhaps in future years traffic will once again return to over 400,000, and even increase to fill its capacity.

The airfield of Llabanère opened in May 1923. The name of the small airfield was after a stream nearby, and is still popular today. Thus began air traffic for Perpignan, and the town soon took a prominent place in the French sky. Postal traffic in particular was especially busy. Today the destination still handles freight traffic and has a special terminal for its operations. The cargo handling area is 850 square metres, and there is also a parking area of 3,720 square metres. An aircraft hangar of 1,020 square metres is available as well. For passenger traffic, Perpignan Airport consists of a single terminal building and two runways, one of which is of adequate length to handle medium to large-sized aircraft. Track 1 is 2,500 x 45 metres, with an asphalt surface, and Track 2 is 1,260 x 25 metres, and also with an asphalt surface. The total footprint of the airport is 300 hectares.

The passenger terminal has the capacity to handle up to 700,000 passengers per annum, and 1,500 passengers can be simultaneously processed. The building is by far not the largest construction, but is modern and well equipped for the needs of its passengers. It is designed in a similar fashion to many other French airports, with the arrival hall on one end of the concourse and the boarding area on the other. This means that passengers can enter either of the two doors and have easy access to all areas and facilities. Arrivals is found on the ground floor and departure proceedings are mostly handled from the upper level. A bar/café is located on the ground floor, along with a few shops, and a restaurant is in service on the first floor. Additional facilities include ATMs, meeting rooms, information desks, a newsagent and facilities for disabled passengers, for example, suitable toilet areas, elevators and pavement ramps. There are also specially reserved spaces in the car park for passengers/visitors with reduced mobility. Wheelchairs can be requested from the information desk in the arrival hall.

Perpignan Airport is considered to be friendly and efficient, but can be quite busy at times, therefore always allow plenty of time for check-in. Further details regarding the airport information is available online, on the official website, or passengers can phone +33 4 68 52 60 70.