Groupe ADP manages more than just Paris’s Orly, Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports. It is also responsible for two satellite general aviation fields Pontoise Cormeilles (LFPT) and Toussus le Noble (LFPN). Both are receiving new approaches, satellite-based procedures at LFPN, and a new ground-based instrument landing system (ILS) at Pontoise Cormeilles. ADP is promoting them as alternative access to the city for users of general aviation aircraft. Pontoise Cormeilles is a 54-kilometer (34 miles) drive to Paris, and Toussus le Noble is 34 km (21 miles) outside the city. Owing to normal traffic, it takes about an hour to drive to Paris from each airport.
Both airports have two runways. LFPT’s Runway 5/23 is 1,689 meters (5,541 feet) long, and the crosswind Runway 12/30 is 1,650 meters (5,413 feet). Besides the new ILS approach, there is also a VOR-DME procedure available. Toussus le Noble has parallel runways, 7/25L and 7/25R. Three RNAV GNSS procedures, including LPV, LNAV/VNAV, and LNAV approaches to Runway 25R, are already in service. There are also a pair of RNAV GNSS procedures for Runway 07L (the same strip as 25R). The low minimums of the satellite approaches are comparable to those of a full ILS, giving the airport much improved utility.
ADP said the new capabilities “make Toussus le Noble and Pontoise Cormeille accessible whatever the weather.” This makes them valuable not only as access to Paris, but also a boon to instrument training operations.
The new capabilities are particularly relevant with EASA’s newly adopted rules on allowing single-engine-turbine operations in instrument meteorological conditions (SET-IMC). With the new rule, turboprop charter flights would be eligible to fly into the two airports. That would open up a potentially healthy flow of charter traffic bound for Paris, passengers from throughout Europe whose only previous alternative was often prohibitively slow surface travel.