A Guide to Spotting at Le Bourget Airport in Paris

Paris-Le Bourget Airport lies about 11 km (7 miles) north-east of central Paris. Although it no longer handles scheduled airline services, it’s a major business aviation airport and home to the famous Air and Space Museum and Paris Air Show, making it popular with aviation enthusiasts.

This guide gives you an overview of what you’ll see and how to spot there (and whether it’s worth it!).

Le Bourget Airport Layout

Citizen59, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Le Bourget Airport has quite a confusing layout.

It has clearly been adapted and expanded many times in the past and, whilst it has three active runways today, previous runways and taxiways are still in evident running at many different angles.

The active runways are:

• 03/21
• 07/25
• 09/27

Most of the parking areas run along the eastern side of the airport, with rows of large hangars and aircraft servicing facilities, and Fixed Base Operators (FBOs) handing the many biz jet movements.

A Dassault Falcon service center, known colloquially as The Roundhouse, is a well known facility on the eastern side.

At the south eastern corner are the former passenger terminal and the Air & Space Museum (see below).

The western side of the airport has an Airbus Helicopters facility, as we as the Dungy Store, where many museum aircraft are stored.

What Aircraft You’ll See at Le Bourget

Le Bourget no longer handles any airline services. These effectively ended with the opening of Charles de Gaulle in the 1970s.

It is popular, however, with private aircraft operators.

Biz jets are the order of the day at Le Bourget, and this is the principal place to see them in the Paris area. They are evident year-round, with peaks associated with events happening in the city (as well as the Paris Air Show).

Biz jets come from all over the world, but French, European and American jets dominate. They range from the smallest to the largest sizes.

Le Bourget also sees French military and government movements, and plenty of helicopters. Light aircraft are not as common, unless associated with the FBOs on site.

As a side note, if you are spotting at Le Bourget you can usually see aircraft on approach to nearby Charles de Gaulle Airport if they are arriving from the west.

A Note on Photo Permits

Plane spotting is legal in France, but if you plan to take photographs of aircraft at Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports you will need a permit.

This is free, and can be applied for in advance.

[Read our guide: How to Get a Plane Spotting Photography Pass for Paris]

Le Bourget Spotting Locations

Aircraft approaching runway 27

Le Bourget has no dedicated spotting areas and can be quite tricky.

From experience, spotters are understood but sometimes moved on here. But don’t let that put you off as it’s quite easy to log quite a few aircraft on a visit.

It’s easiest to spot with the use of a car, as the best way to cover as much ground as possible is to drive in and out of the various access roads near the hangars and FBOs on the eastern side.

Start your tour from outside the museum and old terminal, and head along Av. De l’Europe, between the hangars and the main Av. Du 8 Mai road.

Along here keep an eye out on your left for small access roads leading to the fence. A quick stop will allow you to read off some (but not all) of the aircraft parked at the different ramps.

An area of open ground outside the AC Hotel (which is useful if you’re a spotter looking for somewhere to stay) has a small play park and easier views across the nearby parking areas.

Continue north, looking out for the Dassault Falcon service centre, and drive along the service road next to it for more views. If you are able to park, a quick glance through the windows of the Dassault centre can yield some unusual airframes.

At the eastern end of the airfield there are some views over the fence.

Finally, continue north along Av de l’Europe until the road curves left to a small roundabout. Turn left here into the small car park if it’s open. You have more views, and you can also photograph aircraft on approach to runway 27 here.

On the western side of the airport, the only easy to use spot is off the D84A road where the Stade de Foot and Terrain des Pieds Humides parks and their car park can be found (look for Chem. De Bonneuil road). From here, walk towards the perimeter and you’ll have good views of aircraft approaching runways 07 and 09.

Getting to Le Bourget

Le Bourget Airport is located in northern Paris and is surrounded by residential and commercial streets (part of the reason it was never expanded). It is quite unusual to see an airport on a main city street.

You can get there quite easily by bus or RER train from Charles de Gaulle Airport:

• RER B train: One stop south from CDG to Le Bourget (around 10 minutes).
• Bus 350: Depart from CDG’s terminals direct to Musee de l’air et de l’espace at Le Bourget

Transport links will soon improve further with the Grand Paris Express Line 17, a new automated metro line under construction. It will directly serve Le Bourget Airport and link it efficiently with northern Paris suburbs, Saint-Denis Pleyel and Charles de Gaulle Airport, making access much easier for visitors and spotters.

Le Bourget is easily reached via the A1 motorway from central Paris or CDG. Parking is available around the airport and museum complex.

Paris Air Show

Le Bourget Airport is known to most of the aviation industry as the home of the Paris Air Show, held biennially in June. The event sees flying displays and static displays of the latest civil and military aircraft, and is where deals are done.

The Air Show also attracts lots of additional biz jet traffic, so it’s worth visiting. Technically a business event, anyone involved in aviation professionally or in a media capacity can easily obtain tickets, and there are usually some public days.

Visiting allows you access to the airport’s apron to wander among the static aircraft displays, and gives you access to the museum (see below). It is useful for allowing you to see aircraft parked in the various hangars from an airside vantage point.

Keep an eye on the Paris Air Show website: https://www.siae.fr/en/

Le Bourget Air & Space Museum

Historic aircraft on display inside the historic former passenger terminal at Le Bourget.

By far the highlight of a visit to Paris Le Bourget Airport for the first time visitor (or even a repeat visitor for that matter) is the on-site Musee de l’air et de l’espace (Air & Space Musuem) which houses one of Europe’s best collections of preserved historic aircraft.

The museums takes over the southern corner of the airport, including the old passenger terminal, and houses aircraft relevant to French aviation history in particular. This ranges from early aircraft, experimental types and helicopters, through to wartime aircraft, post-war military jets and airliners.

The largest exhibits are mostly outside on the apron and include an Airbus A380, Boeing 747-100 and Airbus A400M. Inside one of the hangars are two Aerospatiale Concorde aircraft – a prototype and Air France example).

Concorde F-BTSD next to Concorde Prototype 001, F-WTSS, at the Musée de l’air et de l’espace, near Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France. (Clemens Vasters, distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 Licence)

The museum has a storage site at Dungy, in the north west corner of the airfield. Here some other large aircraft are currently in store, including a Douglas DC-8 and Caravelle. Sadly it’s no longer possible to see any of these aircraft from the neighbouring roads owing to high walls. You can sometimes see some of the aircraft from the outdoor apron at the museum, and I believe tours are occasionally organised of the Dungy site.

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