The History of Limoges Airport

The first airfield in Limoges was opened in the commune of Couzeix in the 1920s and was then transferred in 1933 to the commune of Feytiat on the site of the current municipal golf course. The company, Air Limousin, began an air taxi service here in 1967 and then continued regular flights to and from Limoges.

The current site at Bellegarde was built in 1972 and Air Inter opened a regular service continuing on from Air Limousin which became Alta and finally merged with Air Alps. After bankruptcy and the later takeover of Air Inter by Air France in 1997, Air France remained the only airline to operate domestic routes with its subsidiaries Brit Air, Regional and Airlinair.

In 1982 the helicopter section of the Gendarmerie opened a base at the airport. A special artificial threshold approach system was developed to the north of the runway to enable the pilots to conduct instrument landings. Limoges airport remains the only airport in France to have this system.

Limoges airport has one of the longest runways of any airport in France, at 2500m, it is longer than some of the runways located at the larger Paris airports of Charles de Gaulle and Orly.

La Poste' opened an air freight line to Limoges in 1992 which carries an average of 1500 tons of mail per year. To qualify for the opening of this line Airbus needed to complete 320 'Touch and Go's' at the airport.

Limoges Bellegarde saw the start of a new era in 2004 when the two British low cost airlines Ryanair and Flybe began operating new routes to Limoges from the UK.

A new control tower was built in the 1990s and with the success of the international flights to and from Limoges, a new terminal capable of receiving 500 000 passengers per year was built in 2005.

In September 2007, the airline Airlinair, a subsidiary of Air France opened a maintenance center for its ATR turboprops at the airport.

The success of the airport and the intention to futher expand the number of flights and passengers, a new parking facility with 560 parking places was set up in 2008.

Starting in 2009, from March to October, two buses provide a daily link from the airport to Limoges Benedictins train station and to ‘place de Winston Churchill’ in the centre of Limoges.

Today in 2009 Limoges airport continues to grow with new routes to Bristol, Edinburgh and London Luton with the hope of receiving over 400 000 passengers.