Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Paris-Charles de Gaulle is not an airport you take in on the side. The grounds are huge, the terminals are spread over kilometers, and you will look in vain for a cozy observation deck like in Düsseldorf or Munich. In return you get something that only a few places in Europe offer: the complete Air France network, guests from all three alliances, Gulf airlines with the Airbus A380 and FedEx’s European hub – all over four parallel runways that work to a surprisingly clear pattern. If you know this pattern and clarify the permit question beforehand, you take pictures in Roissy that you can’t get elsewhere.

From the planning name “Paris Nord” to EU leader

In the early 1960s it was clear that Orly and Le Bourget would no longer be able to cope with growing air traffic. In 1964 a decree fixed the site for a new major airport on the flat farmland northeast of Paris, at first under the plain working title Paris Nord. It opened on March 8, 1974 – by now named after Charles de Gaulle, but in everyday use still often simply “Roissy,” after the neighboring municipality.

The early airport’s face was shaped by the architect Paul Andreu. His Terminal 1 is a round concrete building surrounded by satellites, connected by escalators in glass tubes that cross the open inner courtyard. Andreu also designed Terminal 2, which was inaugurated in 1982 and then grew hall by hall over decades – from 2A to 2G, supplemented by the satellites S3 and S4. Today, at a good 32 square kilometers, CDG is one of the largest airports in Europe by area and spans six municipalities in three départements.

With about 72 million passengers in 2025, Paris-CDG is the busiest airport in the European Union. It has not quite regained its 2019 level, though – while Orly, the second major Paris airport, was already above it.

Four runways, one clear pattern

For spotters, the runway system is the most important key to CDG. All four runways run parallel in an east-west direction and are grouped into two pairs: one north and one south of the terminals. In each pair there is a long runway of just over four kilometers on the outside and, on the inside, closer to the terminals, a shorter one of 2.7 kilometers.

That gives the basic principle: takeoffs are on the long outer runways, landings on the shorter inner runways. Landings therefore come in closer to the terminals, while takeoffs start further out. It isn’t entirely rigid – during construction work, at night or for operational reasons, air traffic control deviates from it. For example, according to spotter reports the southern outer runway was closed for months in the second half of 2025 because of construction work, and traffic shifted more toward the north pair.

How the digits and letters come about – why the north runways are called 08/26 and the south runways 09/27 although they are almost identically aligned – is explained in the article on runway designations at airports.

Which pair a flight uses depends roughly on where it is handled and where it comes from. According to the spotter guide, some airlines prefer certain runways depending on the terminal; you won’t see all the traffic from any single location. Realistically, you concentrate on one runway pair and catch a good share of the movements there.

Runway direction in use: west or east?

As everywhere, aircraft take off and land into the wind. With a westerly wind, all movements run toward the west (runways 26 and 27): landings come in from the east over Le Mesnil-Amelot and the fields, and takeoffs leave the airport toward the west. With an easterly wind the picture flips, and 08 and 09 are in use. For you that means: an approach location at the east end only pays off when landings are currently to the west – and vice versa.

So check wind and runway direction in use before setting out, ideally live in a flight tracker and in the current METAR for LFPG. The articles Understanding the runway direction in use at airports and Reading METARs and TAFs show how to read the weather and derive the direction from it.

Air France and SkyTeam shape the picture

Paris-CDG is the main hub of Air France and thus the most important mainstay of the Air France-KLM group. Since 1996 the airline has concentrated its connecting traffic in Terminal 2; at the same time CDG is the most important European node of the SkyTeam alliance. Air France also has its headquarters here – right next to Roissypôle station.

On long-haul, the Airbus A350-900, the Boeing 777-300ER and the Boeing 787-9 dominate. On short and medium-haul, Air France flies A320-family types such as the A320 and A321 as well as the Airbus A220-300. Regional jets of the subsidiary Air France Hop are added, such as from the Embraer E190 family. Air France retired its own A380 in 2020 – the superjumbo now comes to Paris through guests like Emirates and Qatar Airways.

The satellites of Terminal 2 are designed for large aircraft: S3 has room for six A380s at once, S4 for seven. For you that means widebody jets don’t stand here individually but in rows.

Who else lands in Roissy

According to statistics, about 105 airlines flew to Paris-CDG in 2025 – hardly any airport in the world has more. Besides Air France and its sister KLM, you see SkyTeam partners like Delta Air Lines, the Gulf carriers, North American airlines of all alliances, numerous companies from Africa and Asia and many European network airlines. easyJet has a base at CDG; charter and low-cost traffic runs largely through Terminal 3.

It is precisely the African and overseas connections that make the appeal. France’s close ties to West and North Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean bring airlines and liveries to Paris that you rarely see in Frankfurt or Munich.

Cargo: FedEx and Europe’s number one or two

Paris-CDG is one of Europe’s two largest cargo airports and has for years been in a close race with Frankfurt for first place. In 2024, just over 1.9 million tonnes were handled. A large part of that is down to FedEx Express: the US company made CDG its hub for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 1996, and the facility lies at the north runways. FedEx’s cargo fleet includes widebody freighters such as the Boeing 777F; a flight tracker shows which types are currently landing in Paris.

The other cargo airlines mostly work in the cargo zones at the south runways. Because cargo often flies at the edges of the day and at night, you will see some of these movements only in the early morning or late evening. The article Identifying cargo aircraft shows how to tell freighter versions from their passenger sisters.

Spotting at Paris-CDG: what to clarify beforehand

This is where CDG differs markedly from German airports. There is no official observation deck, and for photos at the airport fence the spotter community names an official permit as mandatory – according to the widely used spotter guide, this applies to all three Paris airports. As of September 2026, foreign spotters reportedly no longer receive multi-year permits; instead you request specific dates and places by email from the French Ministry of the Interior, preferably in French. Replies can take weeks or not come at all.

Checks concentrate on locations right at the fence. Anyone with an airport pass may ask you for the permit, and police or gendarmerie can approach you at any time. Ladders are not welcome at the airport. What is allowed in Germany and where the limits lie is summed up in the article Is plane spotting allowed? – for France, the rules above apply in addition.

Locations around the airport

Because there is no central spotter spot, the scene is spread across many small points on the edge of the grounds. The spotter guide (as of September 2026) names the following areas; access and status change often, though, so check the current state before you set out.

• Cemetery at the north pair: good for landings on 08R and takeoffs on 26R. Special consideration applies here, and power lines can stick into the frame.
• Area around the Concorde memorial: according to the spotter guide, with a view of landings on 08R and 26L and takeoffs on 08L.
• Le Mesnil-Amelot: the village east of the airport, an approach location for landings on 27L/27R in a westerly wind.
• Hotel rooms with a view: the Sheraton at Terminal 2 and the Hilton near Terminal 3 offer a view of runways or apron from certain rooms and upper floors – weatherproof and without the fence question.
• TGV station in Terminal 2: from the upper level you have only been able to photograph through windows since 2022.

Some formerly well-known locations are currently hardly usable: at the Météo-France building, barriers now prevent parking, a hill on the taxiway near Rue Périchet was overgrown in September 2026, and at several other points parking has been impossible since 2024 or is prevented by guardrails.

A Concorde of Air France is also on display on the airport grounds, recalling the supersonic era – a must-have shot for every visit. The story of the aircraft and the 2000 accident is told in the article on the Concorde.

Which lenses are worthwhile at such distances is explained in the article on focal length in plane spotting. Around midday in summer, it is mainly the heat haze over the long concrete surfaces that gives you trouble; early and late hours usually deliver the sharper pictures.

Getting there and transport links

Paris-CDG is superbly connected by rail. The RER B links downtown with two stations at the airport: Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1 at Roissypôle and Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 TGV directly in Terminal 2. TGV trains also stop there, with connections to many parts of France and to Brussels. Within the grounds, the driverless CDGVAL train shuttles for free between the terminals, parking lots and stations.

The CDG Express, an additional direct connection between the airport and Paris Gare de l’Est, is announced for 2027. By car you reach the airport via the A1 motorway. For fence locations around the grounds, a car is often the more practical choice, because the distances between spots are long and many buses cover only partial routes.

Plans and renovations

The really big growth has been called off for now: a new Terminal 4 for up to 40 million passengers a year was stopped in 2021, after the pandemic slump and under tighter environmental requirements. Instead, Groupe ADP is investing in the existing facilities – Terminal 1 reopened in December 2022 after a long closure, and satellites S3 and S4 are the most recent extensions of Terminal 2.

Important for visitors is the announced renaming of the terminals from March 2027: the familiar mix of digits and letters becomes a numbering from 1 to 7. Terminal 1 stays Terminal 1, Terminal 3 becomes Terminal 2, and the halls of Terminal 2 become terminals 3 to 7 of their own – 2E, for example, becomes Terminal 5. In spotter reports and older guides you will therefore find both designations for a long time.

Paris-CDG compared

Among Europe’s big hubs, CDG sits between London Heathrow Airport and Frankfurt Airport: in passengers in Europe behind Istanbul and Heathrow, in cargo on a par with Frankfurt. The group’s sister hub is Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – there, the Polderbaan spotter place gets you good pictures of the KLM and Air France fleets much more easily. Brussels Airport is also directly reachable from Roissy by TGV.

If you are looking for an easier entry in the German-speaking region, you are better served by the visitors’ hill at Munich Airport or the spectators’ terrace B in Zurich. The article Best spotting spots in Europe offers an overview of worthwhile destinations across Europe.

Conclusion

Paris-Charles de Gaulle is the most demanding of Europe’s big hub airports – and one of the most rewarding. Four runways on a clear pattern, the complete Air France network, guests from all over the world and a large cargo hub provide a variety that hardly any other airport offers.

The price is preparation: clarify the permit, check wind and runway pair, plan your trip and read up on the current status of the locations. Anyone who does that comes back from Roissy with shots that are not everyday in any German logbook.