Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Le Touquet–Côte d'Opale Airport lies on the Pas-de-Calais coast a short distance from the resort town of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, and is a well-known cross-Channel gateway for general aviation pilots. Renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, it offers an instrument approach and a single long paved runway, making it a practical and historically interesting destination for VFR and IFR flights alike.
Le Touquet–Côte d'Opale Airport serves the seaside town of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage on the Channel coast of northern France and is operated by the Société d'economie mixte de l'aéroport du Touquet (SEMAT). Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 the field was renamed in her honour. It has long been a favoured cross-Channel destination for British and French general aviation pilots, offering a substantial hard runway with an ILS approach, and it has a place in aviation history and popular culture, including a hijacking incident and an appearance in a well-known flight simulator training mission.
The airport sits about 2.9 kilometres east-southeast of Le Touquet, a commune of the Pas-de-Calais department on the Côte d'Opale coast of northern France. Approach control in the area is provided by Lille.
Le Touquet has a single physical runway, 13/31, of hard surface construction and lit for night operations. The database records a length of 6555 ft for runway 31 and 6060 ft for runway 13, with an instrument landing system serving runway 13. Field elevation is 16 ft.
Radio services include Lille Approach on 120.275 MHz, an ATIS broadcast on 123.125 MHz, Ground on 125.3 MHz and Tower on 118.45 MHz. An ILS is available for runway 13.
On 2 May 1981 Aer Lingus Flight 164, a Boeing 737-200 travelling from Dublin to London Heathrow with 108 passengers and crew aboard, was hijacked and diverted to Le Touquet, where it remained on the ground for nearly ten hours before French armed forces stormed the aircraft and apprehended the hijacker; no one was killed or injured. The airport also appears in the Microsoft Flight Simulator X mission "Flying Blind Across The Channel", in which the player flies a Cessna 172 from Manston Airport in Kent to Le Touquet in foggy conditions using instrument flight rules. In September 2022 the airport was renamed Le Touquet–Elizabeth II Airport following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The passenger terminal operates from 09:00 to 20:00. There are three flying clubs based at the field, most of which also provide flying lessons, and two of these are helicopter schools and clubs. As of November 2018 there are no scheduled airline services, the last operator, LyddAir, having ceased its route to Lydd.