Aviation in France


Aviation in France dates back to the early 1900s the country's first flight was recorded by Louis Blériot in 1909. There were approximately 478 airports in France as of 2004.
Among the airspace governance authorities active in France, one is Aéroports de Paris, which has authority over the Paris region, managing 14 airports including the two busiest in France, Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport. The former, located in Roissy near Paris, is the fifth busiest airport in the world with 60 million passenger movements in 2008, and France's primary international airport, serving over 100 airlines.
The national carrier of France is Air France, a full service global airline which flies to 20 domestic destinations and 150 international destinations in 83 countries across all 6 major continents.

History

Early history

The history of French aviation began at the beginning of the 20th century. The French had been involved in human flight since 1783, when François Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes flew over Paris in the first human flight in a Hot air balloon. On 7 January 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard crossed the English Channel, from Dover to Calais, on board a hydrogen balloon. He was accompanied by John Jeffries, who was the first passenger to fly from the United Kingdom to France. Fixed wing Aviation in France dates back to the early 1900s where the country's first fixed wing flight was recorded in 1909 by Louis Blériot. This was believed to be the first flight in Europe but many disagree and proving its legitimacy as the first flight in Europe is difficult. The country has been involved in many of the industries firsts, such as Charles Lindbergh flight across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 1927, it was the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic.

Modern history

France has been a leader in aviation throughout the modern era. One of the French's most prized exports is aircraft from French aerospace company Airbus. French airports and airlines have seen huge success in the 20th and 21st centuries. Airport number throughout the country have tripled and airlines are seeing steady passenger numbers.

Major airports

The following are major airports in France with over 1,000,000 passenger numbers as of no later than 2010.
#Airport
name		Airport
serves		PassengersTrendIATAICAO
1Charles de Gaulle AirportParis65,933,145CDGLFPG
2Orly AirportParis31,237,865ORYLFPO
3Nice Côte d'Azur AirportNice12,427,427NCELFMN
4Lyon–Saint-Exupéry AirportLyon9,553,250LYSLFLL
5Marseille Provence AirportMarseille8,475,809MRSLFML
6Toulouse–Blagnac AirportToulouse7,517,736TLSLFBO
7EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse FreiburgMulhouse6,519,393BSLLFBS
8Bordeaux–Mérignac AirportBordeaux5,759,194BODLFBD
9Nantes Atlantique AirportNantes4,157,284NTELFRS
10Beauvais–Tillé AirportBeauvais3,997,856BVALFOB
11Lille AirportLille1,596,700LILLFQQ
12Montpellier–Méditerranée AirportMontpellier1,445,273MPLLFMT
13Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte AirportAjaccio1,366,020AJALFKJ
14Bastia – Poretta AirportBastia1,162,840BIALFKB
15Biarritz AirportBiarritz1,135,482BIQLFBZ

Major airlines

AirlineHeadquarteredFleet
size		DestinationsLoad
Factor		Notes
Air FranceTremblay-en-France22720485.1%Flag carrier/national airline, largest airline in France and 3rd largest airline in the world in terms of countries served.
Transavia FranceParay-Vieille-Poste295691.7%Low-cost airline
Air CorsicaAjaccio101783.4%Airbus A320 and ATR 72 fleet
Corsair InternationalRungis71288.3%—
French BlueParis23N/AFounded in 2016

France is home to aerospace giant Airbus, which has its headquarters and main facilities located in Toulouse.
The company has delivered over 10,000 commercial aircraft with the ten thousandth being delivered on 14 October 2016 to Singapore Airlines; it was an Airbus A350. In 2016 the manufacturers global fleet had performed more than 110 million flights over 215 billion kilometres, carrying 12 billion passengers.
Airbus's planes fly for hundreds of active airlines, governments and private owners all over the world. There is an operator on every continent and nearly every country.