Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport

Lyon is not a hub in the style of Paris or Frankfurt – and that is exactly what makes the airport interesting. Two parallel north-south runways bring in a cross-section of European air traffic: orange jets from easyJet, green ones from Transavia, Volotea with its young network, plus Air France on domestic routes, network airlines from all over Europe and many connections to North Africa. Every now and then a widebody mixes in. If you know how the two runways divide their work and keep an eye on the light, you can build a long list of registrations in Lyon at a relaxed pace.

From Bron to Satolas: a greenfield new build

Until the mid-1970s, Lyon flew out of Bron, an airfield on the eastern edge of the city. There was no room to grow there, and the runways were too short for long-haul aircraft. So as early as 1965 a new site was sought, and it was found on the flat plain east of the city, around the municipality of Colombier-Saugnieu.

The new airport was designed by the architect Guillaume Gillet. After four years of construction, President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing inaugurated it on April 12, 1975; a week later scheduled service moved over from Bron in a single night. The first commercial flight was operated by a Mercure of the then domestic carrier Air Inter from Paris. At opening there was one 4,000-meter runway and capacity for around three million passengers a year.

The airport was first named Lyon-Satolas, after the neighboring village of Satolas-et-Bonce. In June 2000 – for the 100th birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the Lyon-born writer and airmail pilot – the airport and station received their present name. Bron still exists, by the way: the old airport now serves general aviation and is run by the same company.

Architecture: Calatrava’s bird and a new terminal

The best-known building at the airport is not a terminal at all, but the TGV station. The Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava designed it; it opened on June 28, 1994, together with a section of the Rhône-Alpes high-speed line. The roof recalls a bird just spreading its wings – and it can be seen from far away across the flat landscape. The station is about 400 meters long and up to 40 meters high; it has five tracks, of which the two middle ones are reserved for trains passing through. A walkway about 250 meters long with a moving walkway takes you to the terminals.

For spotters who also like to photograph architecture, the station is a must-shoot subject. The curved silhouette works best from outside; inside, it is worth looking up at the ribbed structure.

The terminals have changed a lot, too. From 2014, Terminal 1 was extended by around 70,000 square meters to plans by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; the new areas opened in stages from 2017. The satellite with the D gates is connected by a tunnel – originally the basic low-cost Terminal 3, which had opened in 2011. Terminal 2 was renovated from 2022 to 2024. According to the airport, however, it has been closed again since April 1, 2026; since then all flights use Terminal 1.

Two runways, clear roles

The runway system is quickly explained. Both runways run parallel in a north-south direction. Runway 17R/35L is 4,000 meters long and is mainly used for takeoffs. The second runway, 17L/35R, was added only in 1992, measures 2,670 meters and mainly serves landings. Both are 45 meters wide and equipped with a Category III instrument landing system, which allows landings even in very poor visibility.

You can read the layout from the designations: looking in direction 17, that is, south, the right runway (R) is to the west and the left one (L) to the east. The long takeoff runway is therefore the western one, the shorter landing runway the eastern one.

The wind decides which direction is active. When it blows from the north, takeoffs and landings are to the north – then runway direction 35 is in use, and landings come in from the south. With a south wind the picture flips to 17. Check the current direction before you set out in a flight tracker or a weather map; the articles Understanding runway direction at airports and Windy and other weather maps for spotters explain how.

Who flies to Lyon

Lyon thrives on its mix. Low-cost airlines account for a large share of traffic. easyJet offers a dense network from here to Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal and many vacation regions. Transavia France flies mainly to North Africa, the Middle East and Mediterranean leisure destinations. Volotea has a base in Lyon and connects the city with destinations such as Athens, Porto or Venice. Wizz Air and Vueling add to that. Technically, the Airbus A320 family dominates in all its variants, supplemented at Transavia by the Boeing 737-800.

Air France opened a regional connecting hub in Lyon in 1997. Today it links Lyon mainly with Paris-CDG and other French cities such as Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse or Nice; some of these domestic flights are traditionally operated by the regional subsidiary HOP!. The regional airline Twin Jet flies smaller routes, for example to Strasbourg, Bologna or Milan. Air Corsica comes in from Corsica.

The big network airlines bring their feeders to the hubs: Lufthansa to Frankfurt and Munich, KLM to Amsterdam, Brussels Airlines to Brussels, British Airways to London and Turkish Airlines to Istanbul. Aegean and Aer Lingus are also in the schedule.

North Africa, the Middle East and long-haul

A hallmark of Lyon is its heavy traffic to North Africa. Air Algérie flies from here to a whole series of Algerian cities, including Algiers, Oran and Constantine. Tunisair and Nouvelair connect Lyon with Tunisia, Royal Air Maroc with Casablanca and Marrakesh. For spotters from German-speaking countries this is appealing: you rarely or never see many of these airlines at home.

True long-haul is the exception in Lyon, but it exists. Emirates flies to Dubai, Air Canada and Air Transat to Montréal. Medium-haul routes to the Middle East add to that, for example with Royal Jordanian to Amman. For July 2026, Ethiopian Airlines had also announced a connection to Addis Ababa, combined with Geneva. Because routes, frequencies and aircraft types change with every schedule, the following applies explicitly: as of fall 2026 – check the arrivals board before your visit.

Traffic development: from the COVID low to new growth

Between 2015 and 2019 Lyon grew strongly – from around 8.7 to around 11.7 million passengers. In December 2017 the mark of ten million passengers in a year was exceeded for the first time. The pandemic made the numbers collapse to around 3.5 million in 2020. Traffic has been recovering steadily since, but is still below the 2019 record.

In air cargo, Lyon has – apart from the pandemic year 2020 – hovered for years at somewhere between 50,000 and just under 58,000 tonnes a year. Besides belly cargo in passenger aircraft, cargo companies such as ASL Airlines France, UPS and Emirates SkyCargo serve the airport.

Owner and operator

Since the end of 2006, the company Aéroports de Lyon has run Saint-Exupéry and Bron; the concession runs until 2047. Originally the French state held 60 percent, the Lyon Chamber of Commerce and Industry 25 percent and three local authorities five percent each. In 2016 the state sold its stake for 535 million euros to a consortium of the construction group Vinci, the insurer Predica and the state development bank Caisse des dépôts. Since then Lyon has been part of the Vinci Airports network.

For you as a spotter, the ownership structure hardly matters – with one exception: investments such as the terminal extension or the closure of Terminal 2 change where aircraft park and which areas are accessible.

Spotting in Lyon: what you need to know

The airport designates two areas for plane spotters: a spotter field and a viewpoint (belvédère). Which of them is better at any given moment depends on the runway direction in use and the time of day. Since access and rules at French airports can change, check the airport’s website or current spotter forums beforehand for the exact location and opening.

For landings, the eastern runway 17L/35R is the one that matters, for takeoffs the western 17R/35L. When the wind is from the north, landings come in from the south; with a south wind, from the north. For frame-filling shots of narrowbody jets you need a telephoto lens in the range of about 300 to 400 millimeters; the article on choosing a lens for plane spotting explains which focal length suits what.

Getting there: tram, TGV and car

Hardly any French regional airport is so well connected by rail. The Rhônexpress tram has run since August 2010 from Lyon-Part-Dieu station via Vaulx-en-Velin – La Soie and Meyzieu to the airport and takes about 30 minutes; during the day it runs every quarter of an hour. TGV and Ouigo trains stop at the Calatrava station, including from Paris and toward the Mediterranean. In addition, bus lines of the Lyon transit operator and long-distance coaches to the Alps serve the airport.

By car you reach the airport via the motorway network east of Lyon. For the spotter areas at the runways, your own vehicle or a bike is practical because the distances on the sprawling grounds are long. Parking fees and access roads can change – check them beforehand.

Incidents in history

Like any major airport, Lyon has seen a number of incidents. Particularly well known became the crash of a Learjet 35A in May 2000, carrying Formula 1 driver David Coulthard: after an engine failure, the emergency landing ended in an accident; both pilots died, while Coulthard survived with minor injuries. In March 2013, an Air Méditerranée Airbus A321 ran past the end of the runway on landing and got stuck in soft ground; nobody was injured.

Lyon in comparison

Within France, Lyon ranked fifth by passenger numbers in 2025. If you want to see long-haul and the Air France hub, go to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport – some TGV and Ouigo trains from Saint-Exupéry run via Roissy-CDG. Nice Airport and Marseille Provence Airport are similar in size and have a similar low-cost profile.

Not far away, across the Swiss border, lies Geneva Airport with even more easyJet and international traffic. If you want to see Airbus production, continue southwest: Toulouse-Blagnac Airport is the home of Airbus; tips are in the article Plane spotting at Toulouse-Blagnac.

To keep the many A320 jets in Lyon apart, the article How to tell the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart helps. Why low-cost carriers shape the schedule here so much is explained in How low-cost carriers work. And if you combine the trip to Lyon with other airports, the checklist Planning a spotting trip helps.

Conclusion

Lyon-Saint Exupéry is an airport for spotters who like variety. Instead of one dominant airline, there is a broad mix of low-cost, Air France, European network airlines and pronounced North Africa traffic. The two north-south runways with clearly divided roles make planning easy, and the Calatrava station offers a subject you won’t find at any other airport.

As everywhere, runway direction, light and a look at the arrivals board make the difference. If you sort that out beforehand and respect the security rules in France, you’ll spend a relaxed and varied spotting day in Lyon.