Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport

Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport is France's fourth-busiest airport after Paris CDG, Paris Orly, and Nice, and the principal aviation gateway to the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, serving 63 airlines on 235 routes to 135 nonstop destinations. Named for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — the Lyon-born aviator and author of 'The Little Prince' — the airport is located 20 km (12 mi) east of Lyon at Colombier-Saugnieu, at an elevation of 821 ft (250 m) on the Dauphiné plateau. LYS is notable for hosting one of the most architecturally distinctive transport buildings in Europe: the Santiago Calatrava-designed TGV station, opened in 1994, whose steel-and-glass roof was conceived to resemble a bird in flight and connects the airport directly to the French high-speed rail network. This integration makes Lyon one of the few European airports where passengers can step off a TGV from Marseille, Montpellier, Brussels, or Paris and onto an aircraft without leaving a single building complex. Seasonal ski charters and the airport's proximity to the northern Alps (Chamonix, Val d'Isère, Courchevel) drive a winter traffic surge that repositions LYS as one of Europe's largest gateways for Alpine tourism. The airport operates two asphalt runways — 17R/35L at 13,124 ft (4,000 m) and 17L/35R at 8,760 ft (2,670 m) — and two passenger terminals (T1 and T2), connected by a free shuttle. Air France operates its largest regional base outside Paris here, while easyJet anchors a major low-cost focus city with a substantial fleet presence. Carriers including Transavia, Volotea, and Ryanair round out the low-cost density, and Emirates, Air Canada, and Turkish Airlines provide year-round long-haul or one-stop intercontinental connectivity.