Jet Blast Area - Nimes Garons

Nimes Garons (LFTW / FNI) is an airport in the south of France.

Built in 1931, it served as a commercial airport during the 1960s until the 1990s for Air Inter, first with Paris-Clermond Ferrant-Nimes rotations, then direct flights from the French capital. In 2002, Ryanair opened a route from London Stansted. Nowadays, the low-cost airline is the sole regular operator in Nîmes, with flights to Marrakesh, Fez, Brussels, Porto, Dublin, Edinburgh and London.

A few companies have their base at Nimes Garons and bring some traffic to the airport:

- AVdef is based on the airport, and operates a few aircraft such as a pair of Falcon 20, a Jetstream 41 and a Cessna 406. The company is specialized in providing training for armies and air forces, as well as helping developments of new systems.

- SDTS (formerly known as Ares and Secapem) has a hangar in Nimes. The company operates 4 ex-Royal New Zealand Air Force Aermacchi MB.339 fighters and provides training activities for the French Air Force and mostly the French Navy. Around 2020, rumors said that Ares were in the process of buying ex-Qatar Emiri Air Force Mirage 2000s, but unfortunately the project was cancelled. In October 2023, one of their MB.339 suffered a bird strike on take-off from Nimes and crashed at the end of the runway. Both crew members ejected successfully.

- Sabena Technics has one of its main sites in Nimes for maintenance activities. The company is specialized in Part145 operations for Airbus A320, A330, MRTT, A400M, Boeing 737, 767 and C-135 aircraft for various customers and the French Air Force. Previously, Sabena Technics Nimes was named Minerve, AOM Industries and TAT Industries.

Air Caraïbes Airbus A350-900 | F-HHAV

Sécurité Civile Canadair CL-415T | F-ZBFV / P37

République Française Dassault Falcon 900 | F-RAFP

Ares / SDTS Aermacchi MB-339C | N347EM

Belgian Air Force Dassault Falcon 7X | OO-LUM

Armée de l'Air Boeing C-135FR | 735 / 31-CG

Nimes Garons formerly hosted one of the main Naval Air Base for the French Navy between 1961 and 2011. During that time, Bréguet Alizé, Bréguet Atlantique and Embraer Xingu (amongst other) were based there and operated various missions under the 56S, 21F and 6F "Flottiles". The Naval Base hosted a few interesting military exercises such as a Tactical Leadership Program (TLP) in 2004, or various ASSP trainings with the French Navy. The ASSP (Appontages Simulés Sur Piste, or in English Simulated Aircraft Carrier Landings on Runway) are training campaigns where arresting cables are installed on the runway of an air base, and aircraft train to catch them. Usually, they take place before the French Aircraft Carrier sails for a mission.

When Garons Naval Base closed in 2011, the military field was split in two parts. The living area now hosts a French Army batallion. The hangars are now the headquarters of the Sécurité Civile, which operates the fleet of Canadair CL-415, Bombardier Dash-8 and Beech 200. The aircraft belong to the French Ministry of Interior and are maintained in the hangars by Sabena Technics. Fighting wildfires, they are extremely busy during the summer as well as during the winter for training.