For the World War I and NATO military use of this facility, see Orly Air Base

Paris Orly Airport (French: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly (IATA: ORY, ICAO: LFPO), is an international airport located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, 7 NM (13 km; 8.1 mi) south[2] of Paris, France. It serves as a secondary hub for domestic and overseas territories flights of Air France and as the homebase for Transavia France. Flights operate to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, North America and Southeast Asia. Prior to the construction of Charles de Gaulle Airport, 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.[3] 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 [ edit ]

Orly Airport covers 15.3 square kilometres (5.9 sq mi) of land. The airport area, including terminals and runways, spans over two départements and seven communes:

Essonne département : communes of Paray-Vieille-Poste (West Terminal and half of South Terminal), Wissous, [4] Athis-Mons, [5] Chilly-Mazarin, [6] and Morangis; [7]

: of Paray-Vieille-Poste (West Terminal and half of South Terminal), Wissous, Athis-Mons, Chilly-Mazarin, and Morangis; Val-de-Marne département: communes of Villeneuve-le-Roi[8] and Orly (half of South Terminal).[9]

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 [ edit ]

First years [ edit ]

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.[citation needed]

World War II [ edit ]

As a result of the Battle of France in 1940, Orly Airport was used by the occupying German Luftwaffe as a combat airfield, stationing various fighter and bomber units at the airport throughout the occupation.[10] As a result, Orly was repeatedly attacked by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), destroying much of its infrastructure, and leaving its runways with numerous bomb craters to limit its usefulness to the Germans.[citation needed]

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 as tactical airfield A-47. The 50th Fighter Group flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft from the airport until September, then liaison squadrons used the airfield until October 1945.[11]

The USAAF diagram from March 1947 shows the 6140-foot 27/207 (degrees magnetic) runway (later 03R) with 5170-foot 81/261 runway (later 08L) crossing it at its north end. The November 1953 Aeradio diagram shows four concrete runways, all 197 feet wide: 03L 7874 ft, 03R 6069 ft, 08L 5118 ft and 08R 6627 ft.[citation needed]

The American United States Army Air Forces 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 leased a small portion of the Airport to support Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (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.[12]

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 (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).[citation needed]

A development project voted in 2012 planned to merge the airport's south and west terminals with the construction of an 80,000 m2 building to create one great terminal.[13] 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.[14]

Terminals [ edit ]

Paris-Orly Airport features two separate passenger terminal buildings, Terminal Sud (South Terminal) and Terminal Ouest (West Terminal):[15]

Terminal Sud (South Terminal) [ edit ]

The innovative 1961 steel-and-glass southern 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 A1-A10 and A40-A42 and is furthermore connected to the gate areas Hall A (gates A11-A27) and Hall B (gates B2-B20) to each side of the building.[15] 15 of the terminal's departure gates are equipped with jet-bridges, some of them are able to handle wide-body aircraft.[16]

Terminal Ouest (West Terminal) [ edit ]

The western terminal has a different layout than Terminal Sud, consisting 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 8 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 four gate areas named halls 1-4 which contain departure gates 10A-10P, 20A-20L, 31A-31F and 40A-40G respectively.[15] 23 stands at this terminal are equipped with jet-bridges, with several of them also able to handle wide-body aircraft.[17]

Junction building [ edit ]

On 19 March 2019, a junction building between west and south terminals will open. Terminal Ouest will become terminals 1 and 2, the junction building will be used as terminal 3, and Terminal Sud will become terminal 4.[18]

Airlines and destinations [ edit ]

Other facilities [ edit ]

AOM French Airlines had its head office in Orly Airport Building 363 in Paray-Vieille-Poste.[24][25][26] After AOM and Air Liberté merged in 2001,[27] the new airline, Air Lib, occupied building 363.[28]

Ground transportation [ edit ]

Terminal South

Terminal South

Interior of Terminal South

Interior of Terminal West

Train [ edit ]

Car [ edit ]

Orly Airport is connected to the A106 autoroute (spur route of the A6 autoroute).

Buses and coaches [ edit ]

Accidents and incidents [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Citations [ edit ]

Bibliography [ edit ]

McAuliffe, Jerome J.: U.S. Air Force in France 1950–1967 (2005), Chapter 14, "Paris-USAF Operations".

Media related to Paris-Orly Airport at Wikimedia Commons

Paris Orly Airport travel guide from Wikivoyage