You may find this map useful – it shows all 86 French airports listed officially as Ports of Entry, with colour coding (Red/Green) to indicate those not realistically open to GA (eg Paris Charles De Gaulle, Nice etc.)
Hover over any marker to reveal the airport name
Click on any marker to show the ICAO code and for a few (in the north) I’ve also indicated the PNR listed in the AIP.
Please comment on any errors and other feedback below.
After doing this I felt that there are quite a good number of possibilities to fly direct to from UK spread out to almost every corner of France.
Static version shown below as a teaser
Good job David, thank you! It remains a pity that this kind of effort should be required only because a slight minority of European politicians can’t show good sense, and act up to it.
Thanks very much David. Great idea.
Brilliant, and very useful!
Thank you.
How is Nice less “GA accessible” than Le Bourget?? In fact, the fees are significantly lower at Nice…
I thought Cannes was the GA airport for Nice and that the main Nice airport itself didn’t welcome GA (well maybe an executive jet might be tolerated).
If that’s not the case, I’ll update the map.
I also recall some pretty lively approaches when flying BA commercially in a 737 or similar, bounced around a lot on final by very strong crosswinds midday.
DavidC wrote:
I thought Cannes was the GA airport for Nice and that the main Nice airport itself didn’t welcome GA (well maybe an executive jet might be tolerated).
If that’s not the case, I’ll update the map.
I was in Cannes just last week and judging from the biz jet traffic there, it seems that it is indeed favored if not quasi-obligatory for GA over Nice.
Not only Nice costs a bomb (how much is the landing fee – I think something like 100EUR, and parking as well), but they impose minimum mandatory handling… none of all that nonsense in Cannes. Ok, a jet you might not care much, but I for one I’m not at that level yet…
Not at all. You are all wildly speculating. There are no significant restrictions for GA (big or small) at all for Nice. VFR or IFR. Just announce your arrival to one of the (numerous) local handlers. Cost is around 300 Euros all in for a two-ton aircraft and a night’s parking (information from two years ago).
I think Jason used it a year or so ago.
It’s a scenic 5 minute taxi ride into the heart of Nice.
Obviously: the puddle jumpers mostly use Cannes, but that’s not “all GA”.
That’s really a great idea and very useful, thank you! We might add also other countries like Italy for instance.