Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport

Nice Côte d'Azur Airport is the third-busiest airport in France after Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Paris Orly (ORY) and the busiest airport on the French Riviera, serving 84 airlines on 217 routes to 136 nonstop destinations. Located 7 km (4.3 mi) southwest of central Nice at an elevation of just 12 ft (3.7 m) on the Mediterranean shore, NCE sits on reclaimed coastal land between the Baie des Anges and the Var river delta, with the primary runway extending on an engineered promontory directly into the sea — a geography that gives arriving passengers one of the most photographed over-water approaches in European commercial aviation. NCE handles the highest density of business-jet and private-aviation traffic of any airport in Europe outside Paris Le Bourget, driven by the Riviera's luxury tourism economy and proximity to Monaco (30 km / 19 mi east) and the superyacht basins of Cannes and Antibes. The airport is the largest operating base for easyJet in France, a major Air France regional base, and a focus city for the full range of European carriers serving leisure and business demand — including British Airways, Lufthansa, Emirates, Delta, and Air Canada. The Côte d'Azur's summer peak traffic is extreme, with July and August volumes routinely double the winter baseline; the Cannes Film Festival, Monaco Grand Prix, and Monte-Carlo business events drive additional event-driven capacity surges. NCE operates two closely spaced parallel asphalt runways — 04R/22L at 9,721 ft (2,963 m) and 04L/22R at 8,622 ft (2,628 m) — both extending into the sea and protected by rock breakwaters. Two terminals (T1 and T2) are connected by a free shuttle, with Terminal 2 handling the majority of international and long-haul traffic. A planned T2 expansion and the closure or repurposing of T1 remain on the long-term master plan. The airport is owned by a consortium led by Vinci Airports since 2016.