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Charles de Gaulle International Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG) (French: Aéroport Roissy-Charles de Gaulle)
, also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), in Paris, is one of Europe's principal aviation
centres, as well as France's main international airport. It is named after Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970),
leader of the Free French Forces and founder of the French Fifth Republic. It is located near Roissy, 25
km to the north-east of Paris. The construction of this airport lasted about 10 years.
In 2004, Charles de Gaulle Airport ranked second in Europe in terms of passenger traffic with 51,260,363
passengers, behind London Heathrow Airport (67,344,054), and just above Frankfurt International Airport
(51,098,271). In terms of plane movements, Charles de Gaulle Airport was number one in Europe with 525,660
planes, above Frankfurt International Airport (477,475) and Heathrow (475,999). In terms of cargo
traffic, Charles de Gaulle Airport was also number one in Europe in 2004 with 1,876,900 metric tonnes
(2,068,928 US tons), above Frankfurt (1,838,894 metric tonnes) and Heathrow (1,412,033 metric tonnes).
CDG is connected to the RER urban rail network, providing service into downtown Paris three or four times
per hour, and the high-speed rail TGV network. SNCF French Rail operates direct TGV services to several
French stations from CDG, including Angers Rail Station in Angers, TGV Rail Station in Avignon, Gare de
Bordeaux in Bordeaux, Grenoble Rail Station in Grenoble, Le Mans Rail Station in Le Mans, Lille-Europe
in Lille, Lyon Part-Dieu, Lyon Perrache, Marseille Saint-Charles, Montpellier Rail Station in Montpellier,
Nantes Rail Station in Nantes, Nimes Rail Station in Nîmes, Poitiers Rail Station in Poitiers,
Rennes Rail Station in Rennes, Toulouse Rail Station in Toulouse, Tours Rail Station in Tours,
and Valence Rail Station in Valence.
Also codeshared is Thalys International's service to Brussels's South station.
The other important airport in the Paris area is Orly Airport.
The third main airport to Paris is Paris-Beauvais-Tillé Airport, it mainly serves low-cost airlines
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