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Aéroport de Bordeaux Mérignac

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Aéroport de Bordeaux Mérignac |- |align="center" colspan="4"|

|- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|05/23 |valign="top" align="right"|10,171 |valign="top" align="right"|3,100 |valign="top"|Asphalt |- !align="left" valign="top"|11/29 |valign="top" align="right"|7,923 |valign="top" align="right"|2,415 |valign="top"|Asphalt

Aéroport de Bordeaux is an airport servicing the French city of Bordeaux. It is located in the town of Mérignac within the Gironde département, 6 miles northeast of Bordeaux. In 2004, the airport served 2,928,873 travellers. It is ranked 6th in France as a destination for passengers.

The airport operates on a two halls basis, within a single terminal, and is only linked to downtown by a coach company called JetBus. This lack of a public mass transport connection has led to a certain anger in the local area. However, there are plans for the tramway system to link the airport with downtown.

In addition to almost a flight per hour to Paris and daily flights to the major French cities, the airport offers daily and weekly flights to a large number of european and international destinations.

During the early years of the Cold War, Bordeaux-Mérignac was a front-line NATO facility for the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). As well as it's civil use, the French Air Force deignated Mérignac Air Base BA 106, and it has been used in it's strategic air force.

As a consequence of the temporary closure of the Cazaux military base, the civil authorities have been forced to share the runaway with the French Army since November 2005.

Contents

History

Bordeaux Mérignac's origns begin in 1917, when a joint civilian/military air field was established there. The facility was a major hub for Air France, flying from Bordeaux to various destinations in Europe and North Africa. Military uses by the French Air Force was as a training center and also as a bomber base.

During World War II the German Luftwaffe took control of the base and used it as a center for maritime reconnaissance. Focke-Wulf Fw-200 "Condor" aircraft flew from the base roaming the Atlantic Ocean looking for Allied shipping.

The United States Army Air Force 8th Air Force and the Royal Air Force attacked the base in 1943.

After the war Air France resumed commercial operations out of Mérignac and the restablished French Air Force returned to use the facility.

In 1951 Mérignac was turned over to NATO for use by the United States Air Force. Contstruction of a modern air base suitable for jet aircraft began on 1 August. Much evidence of the war remained with many warning signs still in German, scattered munitions around the facility; the perimeter was still mined; large quanities of practice bombs, and destroyed hangars and other buildings as a result of Allied air raids.

On 1 October 1958, Bordeaux-Mérignac Air Base was closed to reduce USAFE expenses and manpower. All ongoing activities were moved to the NATO Chateauroux-Deols Air Base in central France. The U. S. Army operated a logistics faclilty at Mérignac for a few years, but ended their activities in 1961 and the entire facility was returned to French control.

Destinations

See also

External links

 

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