France Transportation - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

National air transport system

number of registered air carriers: 19 (2020)

inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 553

annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers: 70,188,028 (2018)

annual freight traffic on registered air carriers: 4,443,790,000 (2018) mt-km

Civil aircraft registration country code prefix

F

Airports

total: 464 (2021)

Airports - with paved runways

total: 294

over 3,047 m: 14

2,438 to 3,047 m: 25

1,524 to 2,437 m: 97

914 to 1,523 m: 83

under 914 m: 75 (2021)

Airports - with unpaved runways

total: 170

1,524 to 2,437 m: 1

914 to 1,523 m: 64

under 914 m: 105 (2021)

Heliports

1 (2021)

Pipelines

15,322 km gas, 2,939 km oil, 5,084 km refined products (2013)

Railways

total: 29,640 km (2014)

standard gauge: 29,473 km (2014) 1.435-m gauge (15,561 km electrified)

narrow gauge: 167 km (2014) 1.000-m gauge (63 km electrified)

Roadways

total: 1,053,215 km (2011)

urban: 654,201 km (2011)

non-urban: 399,014 km (2011)

Waterways

metropolitan France: 8,501 km (1,621 km navigable by craft up to 3,000 metric tons) (2010)

Merchant marine

total: 548

by type: container ship 29, general cargo 50, oil tanker 28, other 441 (2021)

note: includes Monaco

Ports and terminals

major seaport(s):
Atlantic Ocean: Brest, Calais, Dunkerque, Le Havre, Nantes
Mediterranean Sea: Marseille

container port(s) (TEUs): Le Havre (2,822,910) (2019)

LNG terminal(s) (import): Dunkerque, Fos Cavaou, Fos Tonkin, Montoir de Bretagne

river port(s): Bordeaux (Garronne); Nantes - Saint Nazaire (Loire); Paris, Rouen (Seine); Strasbourg (Rhine)

cruise/ferry port(s): Calais, Cherbourg, Le Havre

Transportation - note

note 1: begun in 1988 and completed in 1994, the Channel Tunnel (nicknamed the Chunnel) is a 50.5-km (31.4-mi) rail tunnel beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover that runs from Folkestone, Kent, England to Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais in northern France; it is the only fixed link between the island of Great Britain and mainland Europe

note 2: France operates two icebreakers, one PC 3 or 4 class icebreaker based in French Polynesia for operations in Antarctica and one PC 5 or 6 class icebreaker based in the North Atlantic
note - PC indicates a Polar Class vessel: PC 3 - year-round operation in second-year ice which may include multi-year ice inclusions (ice thickness up to 2.5 m); PC 4 - year-round operation in thick first-year ice which may include old ice inclusions (ice thickness up to 120 cm); PC 5 - year-round operation in medium first-year ice which may include old ice inclusions (ice thickness up to 70-120 cm); PC 6 - summer/autumn operation in medium first-year ice which may include old ice inclusions (ice thickness up to 30-70 cm)

NOTE: The information regarding France on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of France 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about France 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.