Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Cherbourg-Maupertus Airport lies on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, between the villages of Maupertus-sur-Mer and Gonneville, about 11 km east of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. Once a wartime Advanced Landing Ground used by fighters, bombers and even Winston Churchill's and Charles de Gaulle's aircraft, it now serves general aviation and occasional charter traffic from a single long runway overlooking the English Channel. For a sim pilot it offers a quiet, historically rich Normandy destination with a generous strip and straightforward radio setup.
Cherbourg-Maupertus Airport (ICAO: LFRC, IATA: CER) serves Cherbourg-en-Cotentin and the surrounding Manche countryside from a site with deep wartime roots. It has no scheduled airline service today, seeing charter flights and general aviation movements instead, but its long single runway and open rural surroundings make it an interesting and uncomplicated Normandy stop for visiting light aircraft.
The airport sits in the Manche department of Normandy, between the communes of Maupertus-sur-Mer and Gonneville, roughly 11 km east of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, close to the Cotentin peninsula's northern coastline. The nearest larger airports are Caen-Carpiquet, about 118 km to the south-east, and Rennes-Saint-Jacques, some 241 km to the south-west.
The airfield has one physical runway, 10/28, aligned east-west. It is 7990 ft long, has a hard surface and is lit for night operations. There is no ILS.
Traffic in the wider area is worked by Deauville Approach on 119.35 MHz, while Cherbourg Tower provides the local air traffic service on 119.625 MHz.
The airfield lies close to the coast between the villages of Maupertus-sur-Mer and Gonneville, useful landmarks for pilots approaching from the Channel side of the Cotentin peninsula. On the ground, the remains of the former wartime main runway, aligned 11/29, are still visible just south of the current runway, and part of the old secondary runway survives as a taxiway leading to the aircraft parking area south of the field. A memorial to the units once stationed here stands in front of the terminal building.
The airfield was built by the French Air Force in 1937 as an annex to the military airfield at Querqueville, originally consisting of a 1,000 m grass runway with a concrete perimeter track added in 1939. Bloch MB.155 fighters were based here from May 1940, but the aircraft saw no combat before the field was seized by German forces during the Battle of France. The Luftwaffe then operated Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers of Jagdgeschwader 2 from the site, which took part in attacks on Allied forces during the Dieppe Raid of August 1942; anti-aircraft guns later replaced the aircraft for local air defence. American forces of the US Army's VII Corps and the 4th Infantry Division captured the airfield on 27 June 1944 after heavy fighting against determined German resistance. Reconstructed by US Army engineers as Advanced Landing Ground A-15, it was fitted with a 6,000 ft PSP main runway aligned 11/29 and a secondary 5,000 ft PSP runway aligned 17/35. The 363d Fighter Group flew P-47 Thunderbolts from the field from 9 July 1944, followed by the B-26 Marauders of the 387th Bombardment Group from 22 August, while the 422d Night Fighter Squadron flew P-61 Black Widow night interceptors from the site until the end of August 1944. Winston Churchill landed at A-15 on 20 July 1944 and Charles de Gaulle on 20 August, and the field was used frequently by Eisenhower and Lee. After the front moved east, the airfield served as a resupply and casualty evacuation base for several months before closing on 22 December 1944 and being handed back to French authorities. In June 2019 the airport hosted C-47 Skytrain/Dakota, DC-3 and USAF MC-130J and C-130 aircraft temporarily based there for the 75th D-Day commemorative air drops.
Cherbourg-Maupertus has been managed by SNC-Lavalin Airports since 1 October 2009. There are no scheduled airline services at present, the last regular route (Paris via Cherbourg to Jersey) having ended in the late 2000s, though charter flights continue to use the field from time to time. Aircraft parking is available in six numbered bays, N1 to N6, on the site of part of the old wartime runway system.