A City for Shoppers in the A380′s Home Paris Airport Hopes to Please Users

Aviation buffs may see the world’s largest commercial aircraft, but architects designing the A380 docks at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris see captive shoppers.

Aiming to increase revenue and efficiency as the airport undergoes expansion and privatization, designers have undertaken a number of innovations for the airport, including a system that allows them to move the French national border within the airport.

“The high volume of passenger and luggage traffic means we must have flexibility in every direction in new ways,” said Hubert Fontanel, project director for the vast boxlike building dubbed Satellite 3. “By inventing a way to quickly switch sections between being domestic and international, we have effectively gained a second terminal in one.” Given security and border concerns, it is an operation that no French airport has ever attempted to integrate into daily operations. With the satellite still 11 months from completion, the Aeroports de Paris gave the International Herald Tribune a preview of the building being prepared for the A380.

Since the check-in process will be divided between two adjoining terminals, the building that will service the A380 is called a satellite rather than a terminal. The building will have space to dock up to six A380 aircraft simultaneously, along with 24 other aircraft. It marks a significant break from the airport’s tradition of acting as a showcase of French architecture. “Architectural innovation was our primary concern until now,” Fontanel said, drawing a contrast between the past emphasis on striking design and the current emphasis on the passengers. “Now we want to offer flexibility and a good experience for passengers.” That policy of architectural innovation faced public scrutiny with the deadly collapse in May 2004 of Terminal 2E, a newly opened terminal that featured a sweeping curved glass, steel and concrete roof. Four people were killed when a 30-meter, or 100-foot, section of that roof fell in. The architecturally modest plans for the A380 satellite were well under way before the collapse, said Jerome Dutrieux, spokesman for the airport. Unlike the other sections of the airport that feature sweeping roofs and graceful curves, the new terminal is a boxlike structure that resembles a discount warehouse. “We have undergone a serious shift in recent years toward making the airport a private entity that is attractive to passengers,” Dutrieux said, adding that the airport has only now undertaken passenger- friendly experiments that would be taken for granted in other airports. “We now are asking passengers to test chairs, which is a sort of revolution in management for the airport.”

In preparation for the airport’s plans to be listed on the stock market next year, it has started sending employees to courtesy classes, offered massages to passengers and held a fashion show along the luggage carrousels. The thrust of changes at the airport primarily concerns increasing the opportunities to shop. London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, has nearly two times the amount of commercial space per passenger of Charles de Gaulle. “We have been studying how to increase the commercial space for passengers and give them the opportunity to purchase things,” Dutrieux said. “Our studies have shown that you need to reduce stress to make people linger and shop.” The key to reducing that stress, Dutrieux said, is to reassure passengers that their gate is nearby. “Once a person can see their gate, they tend to slow down,” Dutrieux said. “That is why open spaces work best.” For all the soaring arches and architectural flair in the main terminals, the airport already had one lesson in pragmatic architecture. A boxlike terminal outside the main airport that is used primarily by charter airlines constantly gets the airport’s best ratings for customer satisfaction. “The space has no architectural interest, but passengers can see their gate right away,” Dutrieux said. “That has a calming effect.” Those lessons will be incorporated within the A380 building, with several other peculiarities relating to the size of the two-floor aircraft. The primary challenges posed by an A380 are increased passenger flow, the top-floor entry on the aircraft and the width of the wings. For the increased passenger and luggage flow, the airport has created a cavernous basement that, at 400 meters long, 86 meters wide and 18 meters high, is larger than most French cathedrals. While the wing span of the A380 means it can link only to terminals that have been specially designed for the aircraft, the wide space at the satellite means that two medium-size aircraft can fit in an empty A380 bay. “This may not be the most beautiful building at Charles de Gaulle,” Fontanel said. “But practical things can have their own beauty as well.”