# Aviation in France

Aviation in France dates back to the early 1900s the country's first flight was recorded by Louis Blériot in 1909. There were approximately 478 airports in France as of 2004.
Among the airspace governance authorities active in France, one is Aéroports de Paris, which has authority over the Paris region, managing 14 airports including the two busiest in France, Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport. The former, located in Roissy near Paris, is the fifth busiest airport in the world with 60 million passenger movements in 2008, and France's primary international airport, serving over 100 airlines.
The national carrier of France is Air France, a full service global airline which flies to 20 domestic destinations and 150 international destinations in 83 countries (including Overseas departments and territories of France) across all 6 major continents.

## History
### Early history

The history of French aviation began at the beginning of the 20th century. The French had been involved in human flight since 1783, when François Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes flew over Paris in the first human flight in a Hot air balloon. On 7 January 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard crossed the English Channel, from Dover to Calais, on board a hydrogen balloon. He was accompanied by John Jeffries, who was the first passenger to fly from the United Kingdom to France. Fixed wing Aviation in France dates back to the early 1900s where the country's first fixed wing flight was recorded in 1909 by Louis Blériot. This was believed to be the first flight in Europe but many disagree and proving its legitimacy as the first flight in Europe is difficult. The country has been involved in many of the industries firsts, such as Charles Lindbergh flight across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 1927, it was the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic.

### Modern history

France has been a leader in aviation throughout the modern era. One of the French's most prized exports is aircraft from French aerospace company Airbus. French airports and airlines have seen huge success in the 20th and 21st centuries. Airport number throughout the country have tripled and airlines are seeing steady passenger numbers.

## Major airports

The following are major airports in France with over 1,000,000 passenger numbers as of no later than 2010.
| # | Airport name | Airport serves | Passengers | IATA | ICAO |
| 1 | Charles de Gaulle Airport | Paris | 65,933,145 | CDG | LFPG |
| 2 | Orly Airport | Paris | 31,237,865 | ORY | LFPO |
| 3 | Nice Côte d'Azur Airport | Nice | 12,427,427 | NCE | LFMN |
| 4 | Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport | Lyon | 9,553,250 | LYS | LFLL |
| 5 | Marseille Provence Airport | Marseille | 8,475,809 | MRS | LFML |
| 6 | Toulouse–Blagnac Airport | Toulouse | 7,517,736 | TLS | LFBO |
| 7 | EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg | Mulhouse | 6,519,393 | BSL | LFBS |
| 8 | Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport | Bordeaux | 5,759,194 | BOD | LFBD |
| 9 | Nantes Atlantique Airport | Nantes | 4,157,284 | NTE | LFRS |
| 10 | Beauvais–Tillé Airport | Beauvais | 3,997,856 | BVA | LFOB |
| 11 | Lille Airport | Lille | 1,596,700 | LIL | LFQQ |
| 12 | Montpellier–Méditerranée Airport | Montpellier | 1,445,273 | MPL | LFMT |
| 13 | Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport | Ajaccio | 1,366,020 | AJA | LFKJ |
| 14 | Bastia – Poretta Airport | Bastia | 1,162,840 | BIA | LFKB |
| 15 | Biarritz Airport | Biarritz | 1,135,482 | BIQ | LFBZ |

## Major airlines

| Airline | Headquartered | Fleet size | Destinations | Load Factor | Notes |
| Air France | Tremblay-en-France | 227 | 204 | 85.1% | Flag carrier/national airline, largest airline in France and 3rd largest airline in the world in terms of countries served. |
| Transavia France | Paray-Vieille-Poste | 29 | 56 | 91.7% | Low-cost airline |
| Air Corsica | Ajaccio | 10 | 17 | 83.4% | Airbus A320 and ATR 72 fleet |
| Corsair International | Rungis | 7 | 12 | 88.3% | — |
| French Blue | Paris | 2 | 3 | N/A | Founded in 2016 |
* All Fleet and destinations numbers as of 2017
* Load factors as of 2015

## Aircraft manufacturing

France is home to aerospace giant Airbus, which has its headquarters and main facilities located in Toulouse.
The company has delivered over 10,000 commercial aircraft with the ten thousandth being delivered on 14 October 2016 to Singapore Airlines; it was an Airbus A350. In 2016 the manufacturers global fleet had performed more than 110 million flights over 215 billion kilometres, carrying 12 billion passengers.
Airbus's planes fly for hundreds of active airlines, governments and private owners all over the world. There is an operator on every continent and nearly every country.