Lyon-Saint-Exupéry holds an unusual position among French airports: it is one of the few with a TGV station within its grounds, and the natural starting point for two mountain areas — the Tarentaise and the Oisans — whose access roads have nothing in common. One important change came in 2026, and it shapes every arrival.
Only one terminal open
Since 1 April 2026, terminal 2 has been closed to the public for modernisation works. All activity is grouped at terminal 1: check-in, bag drop, security and boarding all take place there, whatever the airline or the destination. The carriers previously based at terminal 2 — Volotea, ASL Airlines, Norwegian and Air Arabia — now operate from terminal 1. The shops, restaurants and services of terminal 2 have been redeployed into terminal 1.
The consequence is direct for a traveller who has been through Lyon before: an old booking, a dated guide or an address saved in a sat-nav may still point to terminal 2. No flight arrives there today.
The simple rule. All arrivals are at terminal 1. The meeting point with a chauffeur can be set there without ambiguity, which makes Lyon-Saint-Exupéry momentarily easier to read than most large French airports.
The TGV station, and the distance people underestimate
Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV station, with its fan-shaped roof designed by Santiago Calatrava, is one of the site’s assets. It lets you go straight from a flight to a train without leaving the airport, and it is also the terminus of the Rhônexpress.
You still have to cross. The distances quoted do not quite agree: the Rhônexpress operator says about 7 minutes’ walk from the station to the terminals, using the escalators or the lifts and then the access footbridge with its moving walkways; the airport’s help centre says about 12 minutes’ walk between the station and terminal 1. With luggage, children or ski equipment, allowing for the upper figure avoids unpleasant surprises.
The walking times from the car parks published by the airport give a good sense of the distances across the site: 7 minutes from P3, 10 minutes from P1, 12 minutes from P0, 15 minutes from P2 and P4. The remote car parks require a shuttle: about 40 minutes in total from P5, about 30 minutes from the robotic P5+.
The Rhônexpress
The Rhônexpress links the airport station to Lyon Part-Dieu station in 30 minutes, with two intermediate stops: Vaulx-en-Velin – La Soie, 21 minutes from the airport, and Meyzieu Z.I., 9 minutes away. Trains run every 15 to 30 minutes. A single ticket costs €16.30 online, €10.70 for 12 to 25-year-olds. At Part-Dieu you change to metro line B.
It is the most predictable way of reaching central Lyon at busy times, since it runs on its own track. Its limits lie in the rest of the journey: Part-Dieu is not the old centre, and an address in Vieux-Lyon, on the Croix-Rousse or in the west of the city means a second change, with the luggage.
By road: 25 kilometres and the A432
The airport lies 25 kilometres east of Lyon and is reached by the A432, which joins the A43 towards the centre and the A46 for the ring route. The operator quotes 30 to 40 minutes from the city centre depending on traffic.
That range is the real issue. The Lyon bottleneck — the Fourvière tunnel, the eastern interchanges — is one of the busiest in France, and the variability lies in crossing the conurbation, not on the A432. A transfer booked for 7.30am on a working day and one booked for 9pm take the same road with nothing else in common.
Heading for the resorts
This is Lyon-Saint-Exupéry’s second role, and the one that calls for the most planning. Two families of routes part company as soon as you leave the airport, and they never meet again.
The Tarentaise — Courchevel, Méribel, Val Thorens, Tignes, Val d’Isère — is reached via Chambéry and Albertville, then up the valley to Moûtiers or Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Val Thorens publishes its official distances: 199 kilometres from Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, against 122 from Chambéry, 194 from Grenoble and 201 from Geneva; Moûtiers – Salins – Brides-les-Bains station is 37 kilometres away. Lyon is therefore not the closest airport to the Tarentaise, but it is the one with the most flights.
The Oisans — Alpe d’Huez, Les Deux Alpes — is reached instead via Grenoble and the Romanche valley. Alpe d’Huez gives about 150 kilometres and close to 2 hr 30 of driving from Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, against around a hundred kilometres from Grenoble-Alpes-Isère airport and less than an hour from Grenoble itself.
Two practical rules follow. First, comparing distances as the crow flies makes no sense in the mountains: two resorts close to each other may sit in different valleys and require two entirely separate drives. Second, the end of the journey counts for a great deal. The last kilometres are hairpins, sometimes under snow, with regulated drop-off zones in the pedestrian resorts: the exact address of your accommodation — residence, hamlet, car park level — saves more time than any choice of route.
Lastly, the winter regulations apply on these journeys. Between 1 November and 31 March, in the designated communes of 34 mountain départements, vehicles must have winter tyres or carry chains or snow socks. This is checked explicitly at booking: it is not a comfort option but a condition of driving.
In practice
For an arrival at Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, gather the flight number and its landing time, the precise destination address, the number of passengers and above all the volume of luggage — pairs of skis and snowboards included, since that is what determines the vehicle category. Say too whether the destination is in a pedestrian resort, where drop-off points are controlled.
At Novalia, the journey is confirmed in advance, the flight is tracked so the pick-up can be adjusted if it is delayed, and the price is fixed and known before payment. The vehicles assigned to the Alpine routes are equipped in line with French winter regulations. To arrange a transfer from Lyon to the city, the Tarentaise or the Oisans: contact@novaliafleet.com.
Sources
Every figure in this article comes from one of these sources, consulted on 2 October 2026. Dates and fares published by third parties may change without notice.
- Lyon Aéroport — Closure of Terminal 2
- Lyon Aéroport — Reaching the city centre from the airport
- Lyon Aéroport — Driving to the airport
- Lyon Aéroport help centre — Journey times to the terminals
- Rhônexpress — Station access
- Rhônexpress — Timetables and journey times
- Rhônexpress — Fares
- Val Thorens — Getting here
- Alpe d’Huez — Getting to Alpe d’Huez
- Sécurité routière — New winter equipment rules
