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.

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.

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

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.

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?