Paris-Orly Airport Aéroport de Paris - Orly
IATA: ORY – ICAO: LFPO
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Aéroports de Paris
Serves		Paris
Location		9 cities in Essonne and Val-de-Marne
Hub for		Aigle Azur Air Caraïbes Air France Corsairfly EasyJet OpenSkies Transavia France
Elevation AMSL		291 ft / 89 m
Coordinates		48°43′24″N 002°22′46″E / 48.72333°N 2.37944°E / 48.72333; 2.37944 (Paris-Orly Airport)Coordinates: 48°43′24″N 002°22′46″E / 48.72333°N 2.37944°E / 48.72333; 2.37944 (Paris-Orly Airport)
Website		http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/ADP/en-gb/passagers/home/
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
02/20	2,400	7,874	Concrete
06/24	3,650	11,975	Bituminous concrete
08/26	3,320	10,892	Concrete
Source: French AIP French AIP at EUROCONTROL

Paris-Orly Airport (French: Aéroport de Paris - Orly) (IATA: ORY, ICAO: LFPO) is an airport located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, 7 NM (13 km; 8.1 mi) south of Paris, France. It has flights to cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. 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 terms of passenger boardings with 26,441,000 in 2007.

Orly Airport extends over 15.3 km² (5.9 sq. miles) of land. It straddles two départements and seven communes:

• Essonne département: communes 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 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.

Terminals, airlines and destinations

Orly Airport has two terminals: West and South.

Other facilities

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

Transportation

Road

Orly Airport is connected to the A6 autoroute.

Rail

• Orly Airport is connected to the RER B train line at Antony (Paris RER) train station by the Orlyval automatic shuttle. Orlyval is free to use between the two Orly terminals (west and south).
• A shuttle connects Orly Airport to the RER C train at Pont de Rungis – Aéroport d'Orly.
• A tramway link is planned for the near future.

Buses to Paris include

• the Air France coaches (Cars Air France)
• the RATP Orlybus (direct to Denfert-Rochereau)

History

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 famous engineer Eugène Freyssinet from 1923 on.

Military use

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. As a result, Orly was repeatedly attacked by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force (USAAF), destroying much of its infrastructure, and leaving its runways with numerous bomb craters to limit its usefulness by 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 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.

Until March 1947 the American United States Army Air Force 1408th Army Air Force Base Unit was the primary operator at Orly Field, when control was returned to the French Government. Orly was reactivated as a commercial airport on 1 January 1948, however the United States Air Force leased a small portion of the Airport as an air transport facility primarily supporting 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.

Indidents, Accidents and attacks

On 3 June 1962, Air France Flight F-BHSM, a chartered Boeing 707 named the Chateau de Sully, bound for Atlanta, Georgia crashed on take off with 132 people on-board; 130 of them were killed. The only survivors were two stewardesses seated in the rear of the plane. The charter flight was carrying home Atlanta's civic and cultural leaders of the day. At the time, this was the highest recorded death toll for an incident involving a single aircraft.

On 11 July 1973, Varig Flight 820, a Boeing 707, made a forced landing due to fire in a rear lavatory, incoming from Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft landed 5 kilometers short of the runway, in a full-flap and gear down configuration. However, due mainly to smoke inhalation, there were 123 deaths. Eleven people survived (10 crew, 1 passenger).

On 3 March 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981, otherwise known as the Ermenonville air disaster crashed in the Ermenonville forest after take-off from Orly on a flight to London's Heathrow Airport when an improperly closed cargo door burst open and explosive decompression brought down the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and killed all 346 onboard.

On 13 January 1975, several men, including Ilich Ramírez Sánchez AKA Carlos the Jackal, made an unsuccessful bazooka attack on an El Al airliner. The Boeing 707 was taking off for New York City with 136 passengers. They missed the aircraft, but damaged a Jugoslovenski Aerotransport McDonnell Douglas DC-9 which had just disembarked passengers from Zagreb. The men tried again on January 19, again without success when police spotted the terrorists and opened fire with a submachine gun.

On 15 July 1983, the Armenian underground organisation ASALA bombed a Turkish airline counter in the airport, killing eight people and wounding over 50. The ASALA member Varoujan Garabedian was convicted to life imprisonment for perpetrating the bombing.

Gallery

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2010.
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