Châteauroux-Centre "Marcel Dassault" Airport, formerly known as Châteauroux-Déols "Marcel Dassault" Airport, is an airport serving the French city of Châteauroux. The airport is located north-northeast of Châteauroux in Déols, a commune of the Indredepartment in the Centre-Val de Loireregion in France. The airport is named after Marcel Dassault and is located on the site of the former Châteauroux-Déols Air Base. It is dedicated to air freight, aeronautical maintenance, pilot training and training of airport firefighters.
Facilities
Châteauroux-Centre Airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one paved runway designated 03/21 which measures. The airport is used by both passenger and cargo planes. Châteauroux-Centre Airport serves as a pilot training site for both commercial and military planes. Users of the facility include: Airbus, Air Caraïbes, Air France, ATR, the Belgian Air Force, British Airways, EasyJet, KLM, the French Air Force, French Bee, Hi Fly, Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines and Transavia France with all types of aircraft up to the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747. In the years 1990 to 2000, the airport was used regularly by Air France and British Airways to train future pilots and flight crews for Concorde. The Châteauroux airport has also devoted part of its activity to air freight. Its predominantly industrial vocation allows it to handle all types of aircraft and cargo 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is a transit airport that does not no "slot" and relies on road transport. Since 1 January 2000, the Châteauroux-Center airport has been an 'authorized cargo security agent'. It is one of the few French airports that made this approach and obtained the approval of the French Civil Aviation Authority. This allows it to offer shippers, carriers and freight forwarders a "cargo security" service controlled by the airport security supervisor. The airport has a large aeronautical maintenance area on which are installed, in 2020, the following companies:
Dale Aviation Ltd: specialized in the line maintenance of commercial aircraftAirbus and Boeing. Dale Aviation also stores aircraft with operational support and it can also ensure the dismantling and recycling of aircraft at the end of the life.
Egide Aviation: specialized in aircraft maintenance, helicopters up to, avionics and airworthiness management.
Vallair: on site of Chateauroux, the company is specialized in the dismantling of end-of-life aircraft and engines with recovery and repair of elements for the maintenance market as well as the conversion of Airbus A321 into a freighter plane.
Veolia Aero Recycling France: subsidiary of Veolia, has an aircraft decommissioning platform of.
C2FPA, an airport fire fighter training center, is based at Châteauroux-Centre Airport. The center offers certification specializing in areas like aviation fire protection and wildlife hazard control. The business cluster Aérocentre is located on the airport.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
As of July 2020, there are no recurring scheduled services at the airport. However there are some one-off charter flights to holiday destinations mainly around the Mediterranean.
