Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport Updating Nonsensical Terminal Naming

People have mixed opinions on Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). While I know many people aren’t a fan of the airport, as an aviation geek, I’m sort of a fan. However, there’s one thing I’ve never been able to make sense of, though fortunately that will be changing.

CDG’s terminal naming is extremely confusing

Officially, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport has three terminals — Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and Terminal 3. That seems straightforward enough.

The catch is that Terminal 2 is by far the biggest, and that consists of Terminal 2A, Terminal 2B, Terminal 2C, Terminal 2D, Terminal 2E, Terminal 2F, and Terminal 2G. Oh, and Terminal 2E actually has three halls — Hall K, Hall L, and Hall M.

Charles de Gaulle Airport sure can be confusing!

So you may very well be departing from Terminal 2E Hall M. I’ve never really known the backstory on this, though I have consistently found it to be quite complicated.

Current Charles de Gaulle Airport terminal naming

CDG will adopt a more logical terminal naming system

Groupe ADP has announced that Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport terminals will be renamed in March 2027, to make a little more sense:

  • Terminal 1 will remain Terminal 1
  • Terminal 3 will be renamed Terminal 2
  • Terminal 2A & Terminal 2C will be renamed Terminal 3
  • Terminal 2B & Terminal 2D will be renamed Terminal 4
  • Terminal 2E will be renamed Terminal 5
  • Terminal 2F will be renamed Terminal 6
  • Terminal 2G will be renamed Terminal 7
Future Charles de Gaulle Airport terminal naming

With this change, terminals will only have numbers, so they will no longer have letters. Furthermore, the number of the terminals will follow the flow of passengers arriving by road and the RER.

I welcome these changes, though I’m sure the transition may be a bit messy, and cause some confusion, since I can’t imagine all signage will be updated overnight (or maybe it will be?). The truth is that CDG just has a really complicated terminal layout, as is the case with many airports, given how they’re built over time, piece by piece.

Furthermore, I could see there being some confusion in terms of multiple terminals sharing the same check-in halls, particularly for Air France and SkyTeam departure areas.

This simplification seems like a step in the right direction

Bottom line

In March 2027, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport plans to update its terminal naming system, which I think has been confusing travelers for a very long time. In particular, Terminal 2E has caused a lot of confusion, with Halls K-M.

The airport will go from having just three terminal numbers, to having seven terminal numbers. Fortunately we’ll no longer see terminals with numbers and letters, which was always a bit confusing.

What do you make of CDG’s terminal renaming?

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Anthony Guest

We visited CDG this year. Oh my, we were shocked how awful it is. The terminal was dark and smelly and just having no energy. We could not believe this is a world class airport. Like many hotels in France, they just let them go. Is that "C'est la vie" The Marriott CDG hotel, we received bites in our room and we were on the renovated floor. I had to go to an unrenovated floor, as I walked out of the elevator, I was hit with a smog of bad smell, the rug way beyond its days, in fact I would consider a danger area for health and close that floor. Not sure whats going on in France. They have a very big budget deficit, maybe they are letting things go down.

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Dan Guest

Flew into CDG a year ago. Signs were not intuitive and finding baggage was interesting as it involved a shuttle ride which is not unusual but the signs leading to the shuttle were like something out of a 1960s The Prisoner episode or a bad dream. My wife's first language is French so it was not a language issue. Fortunately a very nice airport employee gave us directions. Changing the signs and renaming the Terminals is like putting up five fingers and asking how many fingers do you see then mixing it up by shaking your hand and putting five fingers up. Still five fingers no matter what you call them. Locals and taxi/uber drivers will be frustrated as it likely will become more complex for them for a while. Guide books will have to be rewritten.

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Alert Guest

I suggest CDG add more halls , with different letters , each with similar colours . For example : Hall "Z" would have a colour of blue + pink ; whilst Hall X would have a colour of pink + light purple ; whilst Hall Y would have a colour darker purple and pink stripes . In addition , lines of those colours could be painted through the terminals , with alcohol rest stops where the lines cross each other .

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AeroB13a Diamond

Polly parrot mimics the organ grinders monkey in a most pathetic fashion. One has to wonder if polly likes nibbling upon the monkey nuts too?

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Nightliner Guest

Honestly, I never was confused by the naming system in CDG. No idea why they would have to rename it - signage was clear as well.

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