Monday 2 November 2009

Transit at Paris CDG

Are you going to transit at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport? Then please continue reading and I will give you some advice how to make your transfer as easy as possible. 

If you are traveling with Air France you will get a nice booklet with your boarding passes and a map of Paris airport where you should be explained everything while you check in. If not, then have a look at your air ticket and find out to which terminal does your flight arrive, and where does you ongoing flight departs from.

Air France uses exclusively terminal 2 for their flights. That would be really nice and easy to transfer inside just one terminal building, but don't get me wrong, because this is not how things are going on at Paris airport. Terminal 2 are in fact a few smaller terminals built together, so they are all called terminal 2. To be precise terminal 2 is divided into 7 smaller parts called 2A,2B,2C,2D,2E,2F and 2G, which is a bit special.

Terminal 2G is used only for the shortest flights, but this one is located a bit away from other Terminal 2 "parts". So if your flight arrives to terminal 2G or departs from terminal 2G you will have to use a free bus. From 5:30 to 14:00 the bus goes from every single building of the terminal 2, but after this time the bus goes only from terminal 2D. Don't worry the ride is really short and will not take more than 5 minutes. The bus  itself goes every 5 minutes before 14:00 and after this time it goes every 8 minutes.

If you are going to fly on a Schengen flight, then you will be using terminal 2D or 2F. In this case you will have to go on foot, or use a public side airport bus. They are clearly marked and free. So once you arrive just go to the exit and clear immigration if necessary and follow signs leading to your terminal.

If your connection is international/international flight then you will not have to clear immigration. Once you arrive at your terminal just follow Transfer signs or "Correspondance" in French and they will lead you directly to your bus. This is an airside bus, which goes just round the airport in the order of 2B-2F-2E-2C-2A-2B. Note, that this bus doesn't go to 2D terminal, because this one is Schengen only and you will have to go on foot or use a bus.

The easiest thing is to connect inside one terminal. All you have to do is to go directly to your departure gate.

If you are not going to fly with Air France and you will be using terminal 1, then you have two possibilities. You can clear the immigration and use a CDGVAL train if you are going to fly on a non-Schengen flight, or you can use a free airside bus service should you wish to remain airside. Just follow Transfers signs to reach the bus.

Last terminal is terminal 3. This terminal is used only for low-cost flights. All transfers from or to this terminal are handled by the CDGVAL train. Every time you will have to leave the terminal building and use the train, which goes T1-T3-T2.

You should definitely make yourself enough time for your transfer at CDG when booking your flight. I once made a transfer from 2C to 2B in 45 minutes, but that is definitely not anything I could recommend. Although the minimum connecting time is 45 minutes you are definitely  risking to miss your flight. If you miss your flight, then proceed to you airline desk and they will have a new boarding passes for the next flight ready for you.

There are many rumors, that nobody speaks English at Paris airport, but I can tell you, that at these days it is not true. Not anymore at least. So if you are transiting at Paris airport don't worry and everything will be just fine.

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