Getting Around France by Plane: Air Travel in France

Lyon's St-Exupery airport (bad photo by the author).

As of 2004, France had 478 airports, but not all are used for tourist travel. Air travel time from Paris to almost anywhere in France is about an hour.

With regard to airlines, Air France, which serves about eight cities in France and eight others in Europe, has few domestic competitors.

Airfares tend to be much higher than for comparable distances in the U.S., and discounts are rare. Most airlines charge their lowest fares between November and March. Shoulder season (October and mid-March to mid-June) is a bit more expensive, but the ideal time to visit France.

The best airfares to France or anywhere else are found online or through your travel agent. Sometimes the lowest fare is through an airline's website like Air France, but more often you get the best deal through a booking agent like Travelocity. You can compare airfares on more than 28 websites at once using QIXO's comparison engine: