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Le Bourget Airport Air Services Rotterdam, Amsterdam Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam Vienna, Central Europe, Bucharest, Athens, Istanbul Cologne, Berlin Sarbruck, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin Lyons, Geneva, Marseilles, Cannes London, Nottingham, Leeds London Basel Buenos Aires Indochina

Le Bourget Airport

 

     Le Bourget is the only commercial airport around Paris. There are powerful radios here, including equipment for wireless telephony (i.e., voice); their call sign is FNB (François Nicolas Berthe phonetically). The landing field is 1,200 meters by 1,200 meters, covered in grass; there's a paved parking tarmac in front of the terminal building. There are navigation lights, floodlights, and landing lights illuminated at night; if required after 9 p.m., a special request must be made with the Traffic Officer.

     Hangars can be rented; they are of two sizes:  33.5 meters wide, or 50 meters wide. Most are already taken up by air transport companies, but one is available for visitors. A repair workshop is available for visitors, with of course fees for parts and labor; the air transport companies will sometimes agree to perform repairs for visitors.

     The customs office opens two hours after sunrise, and closes three hours after sunset (unless a warning is received about a later arrival or very early departure, and special charges are paid). There is a currency exchange office, open the same hours as the customs office. Inside the terminal is a waiting room, post and telegraph office, newspaper stand, and a refreshment room on the upper floor (with a nice view over the flying field). 

     Route Nationale N° 2 leads from Paris to the airport (and beyond to eventually to Amsterdam) -- it's 12 kilometers from the airport to the center of the city; there is also rail service to and from Paris. Air France operates a free shuttle service from Le Bourget to the Air France office in Place Lafayette. Other airlines have shuttles to other "downtown" locations in the city. Taxis usually meet the scheduled flights. 

 

Air Services

 

     Since October of 1933 Air France is the only commercial aviation company based in France; any service to French territories by foreign companies is subject to government approval, and normally involves Air France performing half of such flights.

     These schedules are for routes that originate or terminate at Paris. The schedules have been simplified a bit, especially in regards to which routes operate on what day of the week. There are some air routes that pass through Paris, most notably the Imperial Airways flights to and from London and the colonies.

      Fares are for one-way tickets; round-trip tickets have about a 15% savings.

      Keep in mind that these schedules (from November, 1934) will change quite often, as new types of aircraft enter service. Some of the 220 aircraft employed in 1933 were:

 

• Blériot-Spad 56, a six-passenger airliner dating from the mid-Twenties

• Potez 32, a single-engine monoplane, seats five passengers

• Fokker F.VII and F.VIIb, better known as the Fokker Trimotor

 

     After October of 1933, a policy of modernization, with only French-built aircraft, resulted in a fleet eventually containing:

 

• Penhoët Wibault 282, an all-metal low-wing trimotor. Carries 12 passengers; operates on the Paris-London route; entered service 1932

• Potez 62, a twin-engine high-wing monoplane. Carries 14 to 16 passengers. Slow but reliable, entered service 1936.

• Dewoitine 338, very fast, introduced 1938.

• Bloch MB.220, a twin-engine monoplane, resembling a Boeing 247. Entered service 1938.
  

 

Rotterdam, Amsterdam

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	8:30	Paris - Le Bourget	--	2:05	--
~10:30	~10:40	Rotterdam	300	~12:35	~12:45
11:05	--	Amsterdam	330	--	12:10

KLM route 514; probably the same plane both directions; Amsterdam stops only if required; p.m. times are in italics

 

Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	10:30	Paris - Le Bourget	--	10:50	--
noon	12:15	Brussels	175	9:00, 9:05	9:15
--	--	Antwerp		--	8:45
1:20	1:30	Rotterdam	300	8:25	8:35
1:55	--	Amsterdam	330	--	8:00

Air France and Sabena route 461; weekdays only; p.m. times are in italics

 

Vienna, Central Europe, Bucharest, Athens, Istanbul

 

     The Flèche d'Orient flies from Paris to as far as Ankara, Turkey. It serves (mostly capital) cities in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Yugoslavia, and Greece, all the way to Istanbul, plus of course France (via Prague, Nuremberg, and Strasbourg). Given the need to have an overnight stop, one motto for the service was, "A Day and a Night." You can see their 1933 schedule here; it was a French-Romanian airline, CIDNA, before October 1933.

 

the route map before October of 1933

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	7:15	Paris - Le Bourget	--	2:55	--
9:30	9:40	Strasbourg	320	12:25	12:35
12:10	12:20	Nurnberg	620	11:45	11:55
1:55	2:05	Prague (and > Warsaw)	935	9:55	10:10
3:45	8:00	Vienna	1050	3:35	8:15
9:25	9:35	Budapest	1190	2:00	2:10
11:40	11:50	Belgrade	1770	11:45	11:55
3:50	7:45	Bucharest	2240	8:15	9:45
11:00	--	Istanbul	~2500	--	5:00

Air France route 471, the "Fleche d'Orient"; this is a two or three-day flight,

with overnight stops in Vienna and (outbound) Bucharest; weekdays only; p.m. times are in italics

 

connecting flight to Warsaw

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	10:15	Prague	210	9:50	--
1:45	--	Warsaw		--	6:20

weekdays only; p.m. times are in italics

 

connecting flight to Salonica and Athens

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	noon	Belgrade	--	10:15	--
2:25	2:30	Skopje	?	7:40	7:50
4:45	10:45	Salonica	?	6:15	6:20
12:45	--	Athens	?	--	4:15

weekdays only, with an overnight stop in Salonica southbound/outbound;

p.m. times are in italics; fares are from Belgrade

 

connecting flight to Sofia

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	3:55	Belgrade	--	10:00	--
7:00	--	Sofia	330	--	8:55

weekdays only; p.m. times are in italics; fares are from Belgrade

 

Cologne, Berlin

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	9:40	Paris - Le Bourget	--	3:30	--
12:45	1:05	Cologne	335	2:05	2:25
3:35	--	Berlin - Tempelhof	695	--	11:35

Air France, Lufthansa route 6; weekdays only; p.m. times are in italics

 

Sarbruck, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin

 

     Three round trips per week, from May to September only.

 

Lyons, Geneva, Marseilles, Cannes

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	11:00	Paris - Le Bourget	--	1:10	--
1:10	1:30	Lyons (connect below)	320	10:40	11:00
3:10	--	Geneva	425	--	9:50

Air France route 477; weekdays only; p.m. times are in italics

 

connection to Marseilles, Cannes

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	~1:20	Lyons	--	10:30	--
2:45	~2:55	Marseilles	335	~9:05	9:15
3:45	--	Cannes	380	--	8:15

Air France route 477b; weekdays only; fares are to and from Lyons; p.m. times are in italics

 

London, Nottingham, Leeds

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	9:30	Paris - Le Bourget	--	3:20	--
11:25	11:45	London - Heston	~320	12:55	1:25
12:40	12:50	Nottingham	380	11:50	noon
1:20	--	Leeds	440	--	11:20

London, Scottish and Provincial Airways, Ltd.; every day; p.m. times are in italic;

Heston Aerodrome is on the western outskirts of London; the shuttle from Heston travels to the Langham Hotel, in Portland Place

 

London

 

a DH.86B airliner at Croydon in 1935

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	9:30, 12:30	Paris - Le Bourget	405, 1000	11:45, 2:45	--
11:45, 2:45	--	London - Croydon		--	9:30, 12:30

Imperial Airways, route 454; every day; p.m. times are in italic;

Croydon Aerodrome is on the southern outskirts of London; the Imperial Airways shuttle from Croydon travels to Victoria Station;

the second flight in each direction is the "Silver Wing", which is a luxury service with hot lunch, complimentary champagne and a full bar.

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	10:30, 1:30	Paris - Le Bourget	405, 1000	10:30, 3:00	--
noon, 3:00	--	London - Croydon		--	9:00, 1:30

Air France, route 476; the first flight listed is weekdays only, the second flight is every day; p.m. times are in italic;

Croydon Aerodrome is on the southern outskirts of London; the Air France shuttle from Croydon travels to the Air France offices at 52 Haymarket

the second flight in each direction is the "Silver Wing", which is a luxury service with hot lunch, complimentary champagne and a full bar.

 

outbound		airport	fare, francs	inbound
arrive	depart			arrive	depart
--	10:00, 1:45	Paris - Le Bourget	300	noon, 3:45	--
noon, 3:45	--	London - Stapleford		--	10:00, 1:45

Hillman's Airways; every day; p.m. times are in italic;service began in 1933, and ends in 1936, all on small aircraft;

Stapleford Aerodrome is on the eastern outskirts of London; the Stapleford shuttle travels to King's Cross station in London (25 miles, one hour travel time)

 

Basel

 

     Three round trips per week, from May to October only.

 

Buenos Aires

 

     Air mail service departs from Paris, and travels via Marseilles (or Toulouse), Barcelona, Alicante, Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir, Cabjube, Villa Cisneros, Port-Etienne, Saint Louis, Dakar, Natal, Bahia, Victoria, Rio de Janiero, and Porto Alegre, to Buenos Aires. Begun in the late Twenties, the trip takes 3.5 days in 1933, and is flown once per week.

     Air France is hoping to add passenger service, on some gigantic flying boats, to this route by 1934 or 1935. Currently, the service only offers passenger seats as far south as Agadir (a guess).

 

Indochina

 

 

    Another air mail service route extends from Paris, via Marseilles, Naples, Corfu, Castelrosso, Beirut, Baghdad, Basra, Bushire, Djask, Karachi, Jodhpur, Allahabad, Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, and Bangkok; from there one branch heads via Ventiane to Hanoi, and another branch reaches Saigon. Operated since the late Twenties, this air mail route reached Saigon in 1933; service is once a week. Passengers are only carried between Paris and Beirut as of 1933.

     Originally operated by Air Orient, the company was taken over by Air France in 1933. Air France plans to add passenger service beyond Beirut at some point after mid-1933.

 

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     sources:  Bradshaw's International Air Guides, November 1934; Popular Science, December 1933; The Aircraft Year Book For 1934, pub. by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America.