Charles de Gaulle is the second-largest European airport in terms of passengers -- 61 million last year -- and the seventh-largest worldwide. Yet it doesn't get much love.

According to Skytrax, a consulting firm based in London that publishes one of the world's leading passenger surveys of airports, Charles de Gaulle ranked 34th last year out of the 73 European airports it covers, and 89th out of 208 worldwide.

For many passengers, Charles de Gaulle represents what they hate about air travel: sprawling buildings with bewildering layouts; interminable waits at security, passport control and baggage claim; forgettable shops and restaurants; and often indifferent personnel.

That may be about to change. This summer, Aéroports de Paris, the operator of Charles de Gaulle, and the French flag carrier, Air France, will begin an overhaul of their operations aimed at making the passenger experience at the airport more efficient and, they hope, more enjoyable.

The push toward friendliness and efficiency comes as Charles de Gaulle and Air France face growing competition for trans-Atlantic passengers from other European hubs -- including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London -- after a 2008 accord granted all European and American airlines the right to fly between any two airports in either region. Increasingly, the choice of transfer hub is becoming a factor in passengers' decisions about carriers, industry analysts say.

The push also comes as other airports across the region -- including those in Frankfurt, Munich, Copenhagen and Oslo -- are spending heavily on new terminal capacity to keep pace with increases in passenger traffic of more than 5 percent each year.

Heathrow Airport in London has been investing an average of 1 billion pounds, or US$1.6 billion, a year since 2008 to upgrade all its existing terminals by 2014. In June, the EUR2.5 billion (US$3.3 billion) Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport will open south of Berlin, replacing the Schonefeld and Tegel airports and also Tempelhof, which closed in 2008.

Until now, Charles de Gaulle had "always invested in the hardware but not sufficiently in the software - like politeness, good signage, imposing basic standards for the level of spoken English,"said one European airport consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Aéroports de Paris was a client.

Charles de Gaulle "has always been very much focused on Parisian passengers, when the priority should have been on appealing to foreign visitors," the consultant added.

For Alexandre de Juniac, who took over last year as chief executive of Air France, having a state-of-the-art hub in Paris is more than a matter of competitiveness: it is a question of survival.

"The structural and commercial success or failure of Charles de Gaulle is the success or failure of Air France; we are in the same ship," Mr. Juniac said. "If there is a problem of reputation, we will tackle it together."

The first step in the upgrade, which will include roughly EUR2.4 billion (US$3.2 billion) in new infrastructure investments by 2015, will be the opening of a new satellite to Terminal 2E in July. It is tailor-made to serve the needs of Air France, which represents more than half of all traffic at Charles de Gaulle.

The new building, Satellite 4, will cost EUR560 million (US$746 million) and is designed to accommodate an additional 7.8 million passengers annually. It will be dedicated exclusively to intercontinental flights operated by Air France and its SkyTeam alliance partners -- 60 percent of the airport's total traffic -- grouping under one roof tens of thousands of flights that are now scattered across three terminal buildings.

The airport expects the move to significantly reduce connecting times for transfer passengers, who represented 52 percent of its traffic last year.

"In the past, we have seen that when we offer new buildings, there is an immediate increase in the level of satisfaction,"said Pierre Graff, chief executive of Aéroports de Paris, which also operates the area's second-busiest airport, at Orly, south of Paris.

Part of what has made Charles de Gaulle such a headache for travelers, analysts said, has been its expansion's ad hoc nature.

The iconic, cylindrical Terminal 1, which opened in 1974, was difficult to integrate with the seven subsequent structures that, over the course of two decades, have come to make up Terminal 2. Terminal 2 had its last significant expansion in 2008: 2G, a stand-alone structure on the airport's eastern edge, serves European flights. Terminal 3, which mainly serves low-cost carriers and charters, was last renovated in 2002.

New infrastructure is just part of the equation, however. Quality of service is another. Charles de Gaulle has made progress in this regard, Mr. Graff said, "but we still need to improve."

To that end, Satellite 4 will include about 65,000 square feet of new boutiques and restaurants, as well as an art museum exhibiting works from the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and other Paris collections. It will also house a new 600-seat business-class lounge for Air France, which will be the airline's largest.

Later this year, additional amenities will be added in an adjoining building, Satellite 3, including a hotel, showers, massage stations and a children's play area.

"The way passengers are treated on the ground is becoming more and more important," Mr. Juniac said. "We have to pay particular attention to that."

The migration of long-distance traffic to Satellite 4 is expected to eventually speed European passengers through Charles de Gaulle as well, by freeing enough space in Terminal 2F to make it a hub for Air France and SkyTeam flights to and from the 26 countries in Europe's Schengen zone of passport-free travel.

By December, passengers arriving from another European airport and making a long-distance connection in Paris will be able to remain in the secure area of the airport, thereby avoiding any additional security checks. The airport estimates that the change will enable 10,000 transfer passengers a day to avoid a secondary screening, shaving up to 10 minutes off their average connecting time.

Creating more opportunities -- and time -- for passengers to spend money on the ground is also becoming more important to airports' bottom lines.

More than a fifth of European airports are either fully or partly privatized. At Aéroports de Paris, which is 52 percent state-owned, 37 percent of its revenue last year come from commercial activities. That is well below the global average of around 50 percent, according to ACI World, an airport lobbying group.

On average, each departing passenger spent just more than EUR15 at Charles de Gaulle last year, up 5 percent from 2010.

The airport is also sending its employees to charm school. More than 5,000 people have already attended a so-called University of Service that opened last year, aimed at improving attention and responsiveness to passengers' needs. About three-quarters of the graduates are airport employees, while the rest include airline staff members, border police officers, security agents and others who regularly interact with the traveling public.

Mr. Graff of Aéroports de Paris, who said he did not put much stock in third-party surveys, said the airport's reputation was already on the mend. Four years ago, he said, the airport's own research put passenger satisfaction at 82 percent. That improved to 86 percent last year, and the airport is aiming for 88 percent by the end of 2015.

"Within a few years after the opening of these new facilities, you will see the result," Mr. Graff said. "If we can reach 88 percent to 90 percent satisfaction, the problem is solved. Because in this industry, you always have 10 percent of people who are not satisfied."