Paris-Orly airport, the airport near Paris
Paris-Orly, located 10 kilometres south of Paris, is France's 2nd largest airport in terms of traffic and welcomed 31.9 million passengers in 2019.
Serving 128 destinations in 48 countries, the airport has a large, diversified and constantly expanding direct medium and long-haul air offer, contributing to the attractiveness and international influence of the southern Paris region.
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![]()
31,9
millions passengers
-
![]()
128
destinations covered
in 48 countries
-
![]()
40%
of traffic
with low-cost airlines
-
![]()
75
aircraft parking stand
39 of which are in contact with the aircraft
-
![]()
28 360
direct jobs
![]()
31,9
millions passengers
![]()
128
destinations covered
in 48 countries
![]()
40%
of traffic
with low-cost airlines
![]()
75
aircraft parking stand
39 of which are in contact with the aircraft
![]()
28 360
direct jobs
The primary advantages
Paris-Orly has many strengths that help it to cater for the needs of airlines and passengers. Given its location less than 15 minutes from Paris and its access to dense road networks and public transport links (including the RER B and C, Orlyval, OrlyBus, the Tramway, which offers access to the metro, Cars Air France (coaches) and the Massy TGV train station link, etc.),
Paris-Orly is particularly attractive for passengers due to its easy access, range of destinations, human scale and proximity to Paris.
For airlines, Paris-Orly’s main operational strengths are an average taxiing time of less than six minutes, runways that are close to the terminals and a very smooth approach.
Point to point traffic
Paris-Orly airport’s traffic is mainly origin/destination traffic. In 2017, however, connecting passengers accounted for about 6.8% of departing traffic, or more than 1.1 million passengers.
Over the last seven years, passenger traffic at Paris-Orly has been steadily growing, with record passenger traffic levels since 2013. There has also been a change in structure, with strong growth in European traffic offset by a fall in domestic traffic, particularly because of the cap of 250,000 landing and take-off slots attributable each year, as well as the impact of the TGV high-speed train on domestic flights. The South-Eastern LGV line was commissioned on 1 July 2017. This change has been accompanied by an increase of nearly 22.8% in the number of passengers per aircraft since 2009, with an average of 140 passengers in 2017, versus 114 passengers in 2009. During this period, the size of the modules used at the airport has constantly increased.
3 runways for a fluid traffic
There are three runways at Paris-Orly with a scheduling capacity of 72 aircraft movements per hour. Runways 3 and 4 can accommodate A380s. In 2017, there were 229,027 aircraft movements at Paris-Orly airport.
The airport has 71 aircraft parking stands, 56% of which are contact stands. The 2017 use of contact stands for departure was around 88.6%.
Multiplication of access to the platform reinforcing proximity to Paris
The Paris-Orly platform is located at the junction of the A6 and A10 motorways and close to the A86 motorway. It is also served by the RER combined with a dedicated automatic metro line, called Orlyval.
Line 7 of the tramway was put into service on November 16, 2013 and connects the airport directly to line 7 of the Paris metro and the future “Coeur d’Orly” district. Phase 2 of the project (extension to Juvisy) is under study.
Several other projects are currently in progress or under consideration to improve service to the platform. The “New Greater Paris” project provides in particular for Paris-Orly airport to be served from 2024 by two new connections: the extension of line 14 connecting
Paris-Orly airport to the capital, eventually allowing a connection in 27 minutes to the Châtelet station in the center of Paris, or 40 minutes to Saint-Denis Pleyel, via an automatic metro and the new line 18 linking Paris-Orly to Saclay plateau and Versailles then longer
term in Nanterre. The platform would then be located 30 minutes from Versailles (depending on the ongoing arbitrations of the State).
The declarations of public utility (DUP) for lines 14 and 18 were obtained in July 2016 and March 2017 respectively. Preparatory work began in 2017.
As part of the South interconnection project for high-speed lines, a TGV station could also be created by 2030, opening up access to the vast French and European TGV service network.
Paris-Orly airport has approximately 14,553 parking spaces, including approximately 10,829 located in nearby car parks, in direct contact with the terminals.
Regulatory constraints
The traffic at Paris-Orly airport is subject to two regulatory constraints :
Daily curfew from 23:30 to 6:00
Limited to 250,000 per year for take-off and landing (Order of 6 October 1994 by the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Tourism). In 2014, the number of aircraft movements totalled 229,007, down 2.3% compared to 2016.