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The Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), 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), a French general and former president. It is located near Roissy, 25 km (about14miles) to the north-east of Paris.

The decision to build Charles de Gaulle Airport was made on January 13, 1964. It took ten years to complete. In 1973, the airport's original name, Roissy Airport, was dropped and that of Charles de Gaulle Airport adopted. On March 8, 1974, the airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Pierre Mesmer. It was officially opened to the general public on March 13, 1974. By the end of March 1974, airlines such as UTA, Air Africa, Pan Am, Air Canada and JAL had begun to utilize its services. Trains (Roissy-Rails) started to run to and from the airport in 1976, successfully linking the airport with Paris and its suburbs. By 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).

Charles de Gaulle Airport is today one of the busiest airports in Paris carrying over 26 million people,600,000 tons of freight and 300,000 flights yearly. Charles de Gaulle Airport is looking forward to expanding to a capacity for 50 million passengers a year by 2010.Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) has three terminals, handling both international and domestic traffic. The 3 main terminals are:CDG1: mostly dedicated to long-haul international traffic of foreign airlines.CDG2: hosts Air France flights and some other foreign airlines to European destinations.T9: Exclusively for chartered flights.

Charles de Gaulle Airport offers numerous transport links to the French capital city by road and rail. Paris CDG Airport was one of the first airports in Europe to have an integrated train system serving it. The RER rapid TGV train service reaches central Paris in approximately 45 minutes, Disney World in ten minutes and Lille and Brussels in an hour. Regular RATP buses, taxis and limousines also operate from Paris CDG Airport.

Roissy Bus service departs from all three terminals every 15 to 20 minutes to Place de l'Opera in Paris. A single fare costs 8.20 Euros and the journey time is 45 minutes. Air France Coach Line 2 provides transport to Porte Maillot and Etoile every 15 minutes and the fare is 10 Euros. Line 4 travels to Gare de Lyon and Montparnasse every 30 minutes and the fare is 11.50 Euros. Air France Coach also provides a link to Orly Paris Airport.

Road access from Paris is on the A1 via Porte de la Chapelle, or takes the A3 via Porte de Bagnolet and joins the A1. Follow signposts to the airport. Free Shuttle buses link terminals 1, 2 and 3.

These three modern terminals offer the travelers quality facilities and services. Terminals 1 and 2 have a range of facilities including an excellent choice of restaurants, shopping outlets, business facilities such as meeting rooms and VIP lounges. There are meeting rooms in the terminal-1 of the CDG business centre with phone, fax, photocopy, video and wireless internet facilities Bars and shops, plus extensive banking and currency, first aid, visitors and special needs amenities are featured at Paris CDG Airport. Money change and ATMs are located in all the terminals. Telephones, post-offices, medical centre and a chemist are available in the terminals 1 and 2. There are 9 helpdesks in the airport of which 2 are in terminal-1, 5 in terminal-2 and 2 in terminal-T9. Free guides and maps of the airport and of Paris are available on request.

The three terminals are connected by free shuttle buses and handle over 200,000 passengers daily.

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