Paris Orly Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly , is one of two international airports serving the French capital,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, south of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. It serves as a secondary hub for domestic and overseas territories flights of

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airl ...

and as the homebase for Transavia France. Flights operate to destinations in

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, the

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Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, the Caribbean and North America. Before the opening of Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1974, Orly was the main airport of Paris. Even with the shift of most international traffic to Charles de Gaulle Airport, Orly remains the busiest French airport for domestic traffic and the second busiest French airport overall in passenger traffic, with 33,120,685 passengers in 2018. The airport is operated by Groupe ADP under the brand Paris Aéroport. Since February 2018, the CEO of the airport has been Régis Lacote.

Location

Orly Airport covers of land. The airport area, including terminals and runways, spans over two '' départements'' and seven '' communes'': *

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Paray-Vieille-Poste (West Terminal and half of South Terminal),

Wissous Wissous () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. Paris-Orly Airport is partially located in the commune. Population Inhabitants of Wissous are known as ''Wissoussiens''. History Wissous appears ...

, Athis-Mons,

Chilly-Mazarin Chilly-Mazarin () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. A small part of Orly International Airport lies on the territory of the commune of Chilly-Mazarin. Inhabitants of Chilly-Mazarin ...

, and Morangis; * Val-de-Marne ''département'': ''communes'' of Villeneuve-le-Roi and Orly (half of South Terminal). Management of the airport, however, is solely under the authority of '' Aéroports de Paris'', which also manages Charles de Gaulle Airport, Le Bourget Airport, and several smaller airports in the suburbs of Paris.

History

First years

Originally known as ''Villeneuve-Orly Airport'', the facility was opened in the southern suburbs of Paris in 1932 as a secondary airport to Le Bourget. Before this two huge airship hangars had been built there by the engineer Eugène Freyssinet from 1923 on.

World War II

As a result of the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

in 1940, Orly Airport was used by the occupying German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

as a combat airfield, stationing various fighter and bomber units at the airport throughout the occupation. Consequently, Orly was repeatedly attacked by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF), destroying much of its infrastructure, and leaving its runways with numerous bomb craters to limit its usefulness to the Germans. After the Battle of Normandy and the retreat of German forces from the Paris area in August 1944, Orly was partially repaired by USAAF combat engineers and was used by

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint De ...

as tactical airfield A-47. The

50th Fighter Group 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft from the airport until September, then liaison squadrons used the airfield until October 1945.

Post-war

The USAAF diagram from March 1947 shows the 27/207 (degrees magnetic) runway (later 03R) with 81/261 runway (later 08L) crossing it at its north end. The November 1953 Aeradio diagram shows four concrete runways, all wide: 03L , 03R , 08L and 08R . The American

1408th Army Air Force Base Unit was the primary operator at Orly Field until March 1947 when control was returned to the French Government. (The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

leased a small portion of the Airport to support

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. ACO's and SHAPE's commander is t ...

(SHAPE) at Rocquencourt). The Americans left in 1967 as a result of France's withdrawal from NATO's integrated military command, and all non-French NATO forces were asked to leave France. In May 1958, Pan Am Douglas DC-7Cs flew to Los Angeles in 21 hr 56 min; TWA, Air France and Pan Am flew nonstop to New York in 14 hrs 10–15 min. Air France flew to Tokyo in 31 hr 5 min via Anchorage or 44 hr 45 min on a seven-stop

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its pre ...

(1049G model) via India. Air France's ten flights a day to London were almost all Vickers Viscounts; the only other London flight was Alitalia's daily Douglas DC-6B (BEA was at Le Bourget). A development project voted in 2012 planned to merge the airport's south and west terminals with the construction of an building to create one great terminal. On 14 April 2016, the Groupe ADP rolled out the ''Connect 2020'' corporate strategy and the commercial brand Paris Aéroport was applied to all Parisian airports, including the Orly airport. On November 7, 2015, the failure of a two-decade-old Windows 3.1 system which was responsible for communicating visual range information in foggy weather to pilots caused a temporary cease of operations. Whether the failure was hardware- or software-based is not specified, though the highlighting of the operating system suggests a software failure. As part of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

and its impact on aviation, the airport was closed to all commercial traffic from 1 April 2020 to 25 June 2020. During this period, commercial traffic and flights were relocated to Charles de Gaulle Airport, while Orly was still used for State flights, emergency diversions, and medical evacuations.

Terminals

Terminals 1 and 2

Known as the West Terminal until March 2019, these two terminals consist of two floors and a gate area of four "fingers" rather than a brick-style layout. The ground level 0 features the arrivals facilities including eight baggage reclaim belts as well as several service facilities and shops. The departures area is located on level 1 with more stores and restaurants located here. This central departures area is connected to three gate areas split between Orly 1 (A and B gates) and Orly 2 (C gates). 23 stands at this terminal are equipped with jet-bridges, with several of them also able to handle wide-body aircraft.Google Maps

Terminal 3

Inaugurated in April 2019, Terminal 3 is a junction building between Terminals 1, 2 and 4. The terminal allows customers to travel between all areas of the airport under one roof. It includes around 5,000 sqm of Duty Free shopping along with several restaurants and lounges. It houses gates D and E, with direct access to Orly 4 departure gates.

Terminal 4

Formerly known as the South Terminal this innovative 1961 steel-and-glass terminal building consists of six floors. While the smaller basement level −1 as well as the upper levels 2, 3 and 4 contain only some service facilities, restaurants and office space, level 0 features the arrivals facilities as well as several shops and service counters. The airside area and departure gates are located on the upper level 1. The waiting area, which features several shops as well, houses gates E and F. 15 of the terminal's departure gates are equipped with jet-bridges, some of them are able to handle wide-body aircraft.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Paris-Orly Airport: