Flying in and out of Nice Côte d’Azur airport is always a scenic experience. The two parallel runways are on an artificial peninsula on the mediteranean sea. Arrivals normaly overfly the airport and then turn around over sea, overfly the St-Honorat and St-Marguerite islands before landing.
Departures are normally from runway 04, towards Monaco, and then turn right and come over the “Baie des Anges” (Bay of Angels) again. Try to get a window seat on the right-hand side to maximize the pleasure of flying in Nice.
I always flew through terminal 2, and the transit time is normally short. It is possible to be in a taxi 5 to 10 minutes after leaving the airplane. Departing Nice is as easy. After passing security control, you are in the departure hall. There is no corridor, tunnel, stairs, air-bridge, metro, so walking distance is really minimal.
AirFrance offers many flights to Paris, but also to most European airports. North Africa is also well connected, and Delta offers daily flights to New-York. EasyJet offers flights to 14 other european cities.
I don’t know if this comes from the mild climate of Southern France, but I can’t see a lot of drawbacks of Nice. May be the lack of train connection, but this is partly compensated by a good regional bus network. May be the worst thing is the permanent sea-breeze and resulting “firm” landings.
The list is not over yet, but Nice will probably be close to the top of my “Best European Airports” selection. I tried to resist, but I can’t do it anymore… Nice is a nice airport. Sorry.
Vincent Lambercy is a Swiss private pilot now living in Germany. He holds a private pilot certificate with single-engine, multi-engine and instrument ratings and has logged more than 430 hours of flight.
