Bergerac Airport

28th September 2009



Our friends from Paris, Nick and Mighty Rodney, together with their co-pilot Andre, landed at Bergerac airport in their private plane at 1700 hours on Friday September 11th, the eve of our wedding. They were given a slot just ahead of the Ryanair flight coming in from Bristol on which were our Matron of Honour Marian and her husband. The Ryanair flight from Stansted was already in and sitting on the tarmac waiting for its turnaround return flight to London. Earlier in the day, another of our guests flew in by Flybe from Southampton.

The significance of these flights shows just how busy Bergerac airport has become in the summer months and how convenient it is to be able to commute to London from our house situated only 10 kilometres south of the airport. There are at least four daily scheduled Ryanair flights from Stansted and Bristol, two Flybe flights from Southampton and two others, Transavia from Holland and from Brussels. Next year a new British airline called Jet2 is due to start flying into Bergerac from Leeds.

Christian Lacombe, press officer for the Chamber de Commerce et d’Industrie in Perigueux told me that as many as eleven scheduled international flights arrive and depart from Bergerac at the week-ends.

Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, Lauren Booth commutes weekly by Ryanair from Bergerac to Stansted and I’ve often seen her furiously bashing out copy for one or other of her journalistic outlets on her laptop while waiting self importantly in the departure lounge. The airport has been undergoing an expensive, modern makeover over the last six months at a cost of 3.5m euros. The car park is no longer free and the clapped out old bangers with English number plates have disappeared except for a battered old Mercedes 200 estate which seems to be permanently parked in the same spot.

It was only when I took our friends from Paris back to Bergerac Aero Club to collect their little Cessna that I was told the private jet parked on the tarmac a few yards away belonged to the Russian Oligarch, Roman Abramovich who owns a chateau vineyard at Thenac about 20 kilometres west of Bergerac. There are conflicting reports as to whether the owner is Abramovich or a close friend, another Russian billionaire.

In 2003 Bergerac airport had a new lease of life when Ryanair insisted the runway should be extended to accommodate their Boing 737 800s. Before that Buzz, the now defunct British carrier, flew its BAE 110s into Bergerac using the shorter runway. Next year it will be possible to fly to Paris from Bergerac with Twinjet via Perigueux.

Christian Lacombe says Bergerac Airport has been a “veritable life line” for the regional economy. Last year the airport, he said, generated 267 million euros with 293 passengers passing through. This year, despite the economic crisis, 235,000 people have been registered taking flights in and out of Bergerac.