Lyon–Saint Exupéry Airport — formerly known as ''Lyon Satolas Airport'' — is an
international airport
An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...
of
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
, the third-largest city in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and an important transport facility for the entire
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (; AURA) or ; or ; . is a Regions of France, region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. The new region came into e ...
region. It lies in
Colombier-Saugnieu, southeast of Lyon's city centre. The airport is 30 minutes from the
Lyon-Part-Dieu business district by the
Rhônexpress tram.
History
Early years
The airport was inaugurated by President
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on 12 April 1975, and opened to passengers a week later. It was designed to replace the old
Lyon–Bron Airport, which is now only used for
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...
.
In 1994, the
LGV Rhône-Alpes high-speed rail line brought
TGV service to the airport, providing direct trains to Paris and
Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
. The
fan-shaped canopy of the
Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry, designed by architect
Santiago Calatrava
Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spaniards, Spanish-Swiss people, Swiss architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, particularly known for his bridges supported by single leaning pylons, and his railway stations, stad ...
, is the airport's most notable
architectural feature.
Since 1997, the airport has been a
focus city for the airline
Air France
Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...
.
Development since the 2000s
The airport was originally named ''Lyon Satolas Airport'', after the nearby
eponymous village, but in 2000 the airport and train station were renamed in honour of Lyonnais aviation pioneer and writer
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator.
Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...
, on the centenary of his birth. He was a native of Lyon, and a laureate of the
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, and died in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
In 2013, the airport served 8,562,298 passengers, an increase of 1.3% over the previous year. Air freight increased by 22.7% to 44,820 tonnes, although overall aircraft movements dropped by 2.8% to 113,420.
Facilities

The airport consists of passenger terminals ''1'' and ''2'' which are interconnected on the landside by a central building that itself has a foot-bridge to the nearby
Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry high-speed railway station and the
Rhônexpress terminus.
[lyonaeroports.com - Find your way around the airport](_blank)
retrieved 6 December 2018 The airport also features two runways as well as cargo facilities. A total of 16,000 car spaces in four car parks (P2-P5) are available. Two of the parks are underground (P2 and P3) while the long-stay parks (P4 and P5) are located at a distance from the terminals behind the railway station.
Terminal 1
Terminal 1 consists of two parts: The older part is a two-storey, slightly curved, brick shape building which contains the check-in areas 11, 12, 14, 18 and 19 as well as departure areas G and F on the upper level with the arrivals on the ground level.
In 2014, Aéroports de Lyon started the construction of a new terminal expansion, which doubled the capacity and the area, with . Four groups took part in the tender process to design and develop the expanded Terminal 1. The bid was won by the GFC Construction company in partnership with Quille Construction (
Bouygues
Bouygues S.A. () is a French engineering group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext, Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip (stock market), blue chip in the ...
) and Bouygues Energies & Services. The architectural practice was
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners led by
Graham Stirk, Chabanne and Partners, engineers
Technip
Technip S.A. was a company that carried out project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry; in 2017 it completed a merger with FMC Technologies to form TechnipFMC. Its headquarters were in the 16th arrondissement of Par ...
TPS and Cap Ingélec, and Inddigo. The expanded Terminal 1 opened in June 2018. It has a circular shape with check-in area 10 and additional arrivals facilities on the ground level and departure gates B and C on both upper levels.
It is also connected by a tunnel to a small satellite building containing the D gates, now mainly used by
easyJet and
Transavia France, while the other areas serve
Star Alliance
Star Alliance is an airline alliance headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. Founded on 14 May 1997, it was the world's first global airline alliance. Star Alliance has 25 member airlines that operate a combined fleet of over 5,000 aircraft, servi ...
carriers and
Emirates, among others.
Terminal 2
Terminal 2 is a duplicate of the older part of Terminal 1, containing check-in areas 20 and 21 with boarding areas Q and P on the upper level and arrivals facilities on the lower level. This terminal area is mainly used by
Air France
Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...
.
Former Terminal 3
The former Terminal 3 was a very basic facility used by
low-cost carriers. It was demolished during Terminal 1 expansion. The satellite building is still open, however; it now houses the ‘D’ gates for low cost airlines such as
easyJet.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Cargo
Statistics
Ground transportation
Rail
The
Rhônexpress tram
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
way began operations in August 2010 and links
Gare de Lyon-Part-Dieu east of Lyon's city centre with
Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry next to the airport in approximately 30 minutes using and sharing existing tracks of the
Lyon tramway as well as a newly constructed route. This tramway replaced the former coach shuttle services (Satobus) that operated beforehand leaving the airport with no other public connections to the city centre.
The Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry station is also served by the
LGV Rhône-Alpes high speed rail line.
Coach
Coach links connect the airport with the centre of other towns in the area including
Grenoble
Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...
(at least once an hour),
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...
and
Chambéry
Chambéry (, , ; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the southeastern ...
. Bus operators also offer a coach shuttle service to the surrounding French ski resorts, including Tignes, Val d'Isere, Val Thorens and more.
Since January 2020, two buses from
Transports en commun lyonnais are stopping at the airport:
- The bus 47, from
Meyzieu, connecting with Tram line 3 (from Gare Part-Dieu) to
Saint-Laurent-de-Mure, connecting with Bus line 1E (from Grange Blanche) via the airport. The line operates 7 days a week, from 5:30am to 11:45pm, every 30 minutes.
- The bus 48, from
Genas to the airport.
Electric car service
The airport has an electric car sharing station.
Bolloré Bluecar vehicles are available for rent.
See also
*
Antoine de Saint Exupéry Airport (Argentina)
*
List of the busiest airports in France
References
External links
*
Aéroport de Lyon-Saint Exupéry(Union des aéroports français)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon-Saint Exupery Airport
Airports established in 1975
Airports in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Buildings and structures in Rhône (department)
Transport in Lyon
1975 establishments in France