Charles de Gaulle International Airport (Aéroport Roissy-Charles de Gaulle), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), in Paris, is one of the world's principal aviation centres, as well as France's main international airport. It is named after Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), leader of the Free French Forces and founder of the French Fifth Republic. It is located within portions of several communes, including Roissy, 25 km to the north-east of Paris.
In 2006, Charles de Gaulle Airport was number one in terms of aircraft movements in Europe with 541,566 landings and take-offs common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-57_666_2__" target="_blank">http://www.airports.org/cda/aci_common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-57_666_2__, above Frankfurt International Airport (489,406) and Heathrow (477,029). In terms of cargo traffic, Charles de Gaulle Airport was also number one in Europe with 2,130,724 tonnes (2,348,721 US tons)http://www.airports.org/cda/aci_common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-4819_666_2__, just above Frankfurt (2,127,646 tonnes), and above _Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (1,566,828 tonnes) and Heathrow (1,343,930 tonnes). In terms of passenger traffic Charles de Gaulle Airport ranked second in Europe with 56,849,567 passengers common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-55_666_2__" target="_blank">http://www.airports.org/cda/aci_common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-55_666_2__, behind London _Heathrow Airport (67,530,197), and above Frankfurt International Airport (52,810,683).
CDG is connected to the RER urban rail network, providing services into central Paris three to four times per hour, and the high-speed rail TGV network. SNCF French Rail operates direct TGV services to several French stations from CDG, including Angers, Avignon, Bordeaux, Dijon, Grenoble, Le Mans, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Nîmes, Poitiers, Rennes, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Tours, and Valence.
The three other international airports serving Paris are Orly Airport, the most important after CDG, Paris-Beauvais-Tillé Airport, which mainly serves low-cost airlines, and Paris - Le Bourget Airport for General aviation (business jets).
