Paris CDG makes strides to improve its image

Most of us who travel often, actively tried to avoid CDG if we can. Illogical signs, long distances and generally uninspiring surroundings are the main complaints when one is asked to describe the airport. "No, we have not been a great airport, but now we are doing a lot of things to change that," says Jean-Paul Claret, communications manager for Air France in Paris. "The goal of the changes is to make the airport one travellers actively choose - not avoid."

Charles de Gaulle Airport is a huge airport. Its surface area is approximately a third of the size of Paris, and it is the second largest airport in Europe after Frankfurt.

In the international rankings, it stands at an impressive eighth place in terms of number of routes.

"We are really trying to change the image of the airport," says Jean-Paul Claret. "We have, after all, four runways, compared with London Heathrow, for example, which has only two. Who has not circled the airport waiting to be allowed to land there," he asks with a smile.

"Earlier this winter, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Air France hub, and when you look at the number of routes, we are up there with the best. Through our partnership with Skyteam, we offer 25,000 weekly departures. Lufthansa has 14,000 from Frankfurt and British Airways has 7,000 from Heathrow ".

Let us look at the actual changes at the airport. They have grouped all Air France and KLM flights in the east of the airport in order to reduce transit distances and the previously long walks. Passengers will never need to go through more than one security control, and people travelling within the Schengen are able to go directly to their next gate. Just four years ago, 6% of all passengers did not make their connecting flight because the logistics at the airport were so bad and the distances so long - that figure is now down to 1%. As an example of the improved logistics at the airport, Air France long-haul flights now depart from Terminal 2E, while departures within the Schengen leave from 2F, and regional flights from 2G.

These changes make operations at CDG run much smoother. Previously, when arriving from a Schengen country, one had to pass through two security checks. Now, however, there are gates to bypass security for passengers that have already been checked once. This shortens transfer times significantly.

"We recognise that it could be ‘a little bit crazy’ before,” says Jean-Paul Claret.

The airport noticed these issues and has made strides to make improvements - including hiring more staff at security checkpoints to make the process go faster. Transfer times have been reduced so that an hour is enough to switch to, or from, a long haul flight, and 45 minutes when it comes to transfers between European destinations.

The information and signage around the airport has been updated, there are new check-in counters and new automatic trains that carry passengers efficiently between the various terminals. In all honesty, there are still large areas of the airport which get very low ratings for many different reasons, but we hope that the winds of change will also blow there. We'll see.

Here at BusinessClass, we really appreciate it when an airport admits its past sins and tackles the problems. So far, the improvements have been significant and we look forward to seeing the rest of the changes implemented as quickly as possible. If you have had a good (or maybe not so good) experience at CDG, then please share it with us in the comments.