Last month’s opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was controversial in the aviation world. In March of this year, France’s Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced that there would be an airspace closure of about 93 miles for a period of almost seven hours. Eight airports were affected; Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (France’s biggest airport), Orly, Le Bourget, Beauvais-Tille Airport, Paris-Saclay-Versailles Airport, Melun Villaroche Airport, Pontoise Cormeilles Airport, and Lognes-Émerainville Aerodrome.
As a result of the closures, airlines had to shift their schedules accordingly, leading to many flight cancelations. According to flightradar24 , July 26 had 300 fewer flights than July 19, just at Charles de Gaulle. Speaking on the busy summer at Paris Airports, Augustin de Romanet, chairman and CEO of Groupe ADP, said, “It is in our airports that the Games will begin and will end for many: everyone will make their first and last memories there.
This is a magnificent challenge for the entire airport community and for our territories, and a unique opportunity to demonstrate our know-how and commitment to hospitality. Groupe ADP with all its employees, will be there to make Paris 2024 an unforgettable collective success." The plan The flight restriction on the day of the opening ceremony was implemented in three phases.
The first phase was shutting down all arrivals to all the airports above, which took place at 15:30 UTC. Thirty minutes later, Phase 2 started with a full closure of the airspace, including overflights. Phase 2 was in place from 16:00 UTC to 21:30.
The final phase started at 21:30 when departures were allowed to resume at CDG. The airspace was then fully reopened at 22:15. Combined, the Paris airports had 647 fewer flights on July 26 than on the 19th.
This includes all airports and represents an even reduction of 30% compared to the previous week’s operations. Several airlines did not have to adjust schedules, so a large portion of what was changed was by a few airlines. Read next: How Will The 2024 Olympic Games Operationally Impact Paris' Major Airports? Charles de Gaulle According to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, July 26 had 195 fewer departures than the previous week, a 29.
1% cut. The most impacted airlines, by percentage of operations reduced, were Vistara, Uzbekistan Airways, Tunisair, SalamAir, Oman Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Air India, and ANA. These airlines canceled all of their departing flights from CDG on the 26th.
SAS and Air Algerie each canceled 60% of their operations for the day, with SAS only operating two of five departures and Air Algerie operating four of ten. When analyzing the number of cancelations, Air France was the most impacted, as it is the biggest airline at CDG. On July 26th, Air France had 248 departures from CDG, compared to 364 the previous week.
This was a reduction of 116 flights, or 31.9%. EasyJet, one of Europe’s largest ultra-low-cost carriers, canceled 35 flights, representing a 56.
5% cut. “Like all airlines operating to and from Paris, easyJet has been requested to reduce its flying programme for duration of the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony on Friday 26 July 2024. This resulted in the cancellation of 96 flights at both Paris Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly.
” Arrivals suffered a similar cut, 28.6%. On July 26, there were 482 arrivals at CDG, compared to 675 the previous week.
The same airlines as above reduced their operations by 100%, while Air Algerie’s arrivals were cut by 80%. SWISS and SAS cut 60% of their arrivals. Air France took a big hit, cutting 106 flights, representing a 29.
1% reduction. Orly Orly Airport is Paris’ second-busiest airport. Airlines like French bee and Azul LInhas Aéreas from Brazil operate long haul flights at ORY.
On July 26, 235 flights departed from Orly, compared to 342 the week before. One hundred and seven flights were cut, totaling a 31.3% reduction over the previous Friday.
Only one carrier cut 100% of its operations, KM Malta Airlines, which only operated one flight out of ORY on July 19. Air Corsica cut 45.5% of flights, going from 11 to six on July 26, while EasyJet cut 43.
3%, from 30 to 17. When comparing the number of flights cut, Transavia, the low-cost carrier of the Air France-KLM Group, cut 43 flights. On July 19, Transavia operated 123 departures, cutting that down to 80 on the day of the opening ceremony.
The difference in the percentage of arrivals cut at Orly was 0.1. On the day of the opening ceremony, there were 234 arrivals, compared to 340 on the previous Friday.
The 106 flights cut represented a 31.2% reduction. Beauvais Beauvais-Tille Airport is an airport used by only two airlines, Ryanair and Wizz Air.
The airport is located about 57 miles from the center of Paris. This makes it difficult and/or expensive for travelers to reach the airport when leaving the city, with driving times being at least one hour and twenty minutes, and public transportation taking more than two and a half hours. On the day of the opening ceremony, only 39 departures operated out of BVA, compared to 62 the week before.
This represented a 37.1% decrease over July 19. Ryanair, which operates most of the flights at BVA, cut 39.
6% of its departures. On July 19, Ryanair had 53 flights, and the following week, that number was cut down to 32. When an airline has several “branches”, Cirium breaks down the information accordingly, so BVA flights for Wizz Air are broken into Wizz Air and Wizz Air Malta.
Wizz Air Malta operates most flights at BVA, with seven departures on July 19, compared to six on the 26th. The arrivals numbers are the exact same..
