Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (French: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris (and its metropolitan area), and the largest international airport in France. Opened in 1974, it is in Roissy-en-France, 23 km (14 mi) northeast of Paris and is named after statesman Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970), whose initials (CDG) is used as its IATA airport code. Charles de Gaulle Airport serves as the principal hub for Air France and a destination for other legacy carriers (from Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam), as well as a focus city for low-cost carriers easyJet and Vueling. It is operated by Groupe ADP under the brand Paris Aéroport. In 2019, the airport handled 76,150,007 passengers and 498,175 aircraft movements, thus making it the world's ninth busiest airport and Europe's second busiest airport (after Heathrow) in terms of passenger numbers. Charles de Gaulle is also the busiest airport within the European Union. In terms of cargo traffic, the airport is the eleventh busiest in the world and the busiest in Europe, handling 2,102,268 tonnes (2,069,066 long tons; 2,317,354 short tons) of cargo in 2019. It is also the airport that is served by most number of airlines, with more than 105 airlines operating at the airport. As of 2017[update], the airport offers direct flights to the most countries and hosts the most airlines in the world. Marc Houalla has been the director of the airport since 12 February 2018.
