Carcassonne Airport
With CCF as its official code, the Carcassonne Airport is commonly known as the Carcassonne en Pays Cathare, the Carcassonne Salvaza, or as Salvaza. Carcassonne city and other towns like Pennautier, Villemoustaussou, Ventenac-Cabardès, Cazilhac, Montréal, Pezens, Caux-et-Sauzens , and Alzonne are served by Carcassonne Airport. It handles a lot of tourists annually as it is situated at a distance of 2 miles, or 3km from the appealing and beautiful medieval city of Carcassonne. Incoming and outgoing flights from Carcassonne Airport are offered by a cheap airline carrier, Ryanair Airline. Throughout the year, flights from Brussels South-Charleroi, Liverpool, Dublin, and London-Stansted are regular, whereas those from Cork, Glasgow-Prestwick, East Midlands, and Porto are seasonal. Passengers arrive at a single but modern and well-organized terminal building of Carcassonne Airport.
Airport overview shows that at the end of 1990’s, the budget airline carriers started operating at Carcassonne Airport, before which the airport had not much importance. In the past years less than 200,000 passengers were recorded that passed through the terminal annually. But these numbers started to increase significantly, over 400,000 passengers in 2006, 444,702 passengers in 2008 and 452,188 passengers in 2009. The Airport is equipped with various facilities, and also with friendly and efficient staff. It is overcrowded during the peak traffic hours but still it is known to be efficient and passenger friendly. Counters of travel agent, tourist information office and rental companies are situated within the terminal. Public payphones, shops selling local products, baby-changing areas, ATMs, currency exchange services and banking facilities are available for passengers in the terminal. The Airport has adequate arrangements like reserved vehicle parking places, wheel chairs, slopes, lowered telephone booths and appropriate lavatory amenities to cater the needs of disabled passengers.
In order to reach the places like Carcassonne railway station and city centre passengers can use buses which leave after every twenty minutes of each flight arrival at the airport. However taxis are always ready for arriving passengers. To reach their destination comfortably passengers can also hire vehicles from Rental companies available at the airport. With 2500 years of history, places like the castle and the town wall with more than 50 towers, Carcassonne has a lot of wonderful attractions to discover. It will be very convenient to go to other towns for the passengers that have hired a vehicle. The customer should be 21 years old and also must hold a valid driving license in order to hire the car from Car Hire companies at Carcassonne Airport. A major credit card on customer’s name is enough for payment purpose.
Saint-Jean de Grèzes, Montquier, and Galinier are some areas located particularly near, Villemoustaussou, Montréal, Pennautier, and Bram are a little further. The Spanish border is in the south of city Albi and Castres are in the north. D119 & D6161 roads can be accessed while driving towards the CCF from the city, while from east and west A61 Autoroute can be accessed. The D33, providing access from regions like Villesèquelande and Castelnaudary is passing by northern side of Airport grounds.
According to the airport overview, at an 434 feet altitude above the sea level the Carcassonne Airport consists of two runways and single terminal building. Out of two runways, the shorter one is unpaved with grassy surface, while other one suits the length requirement of most airline carriers. Aircrafts operating under VFR (Visual Flight Rules) are catered by Carcassonne Airport. These rules state that in order to avoid obstacles and other airliner, to manage the airliner’s elevation and for routing, the pilot must be able to see outside the cockpit. However, Instrument flight rules must be used by pilots in case of worse weather condition.