Up until recently, Air France primarily operated out of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), though the airline also had a limited network out of Paris Orly Airport (ORY). Generally Charles de Gaulle Airport is considered the more premium and global hub, while Orly Airport is closer to the city, and is more popular for leisure flights.
In 2023, the French flag carrier announced plans to discontinue flights out of Orly Airport by 2026, and that has now officially happened, as Air France operated its last flight out of the airport yesterday (thanks to Aaron for flagging this).
Air France consolidates flights at Charles de Gaulle Airport
As of March 29, 2026 (also the start of the IATA summer schedule), Air France has consolidated all of its domestic and international flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, ending service at Paris Orly Airport. In recent years, Air France’s service out of Orly Airport has been primarily domestic, as well as to French overseas territories, and select destinations in Africa.
The Air France-KLM Group isn’t abandoning Orly Airport, though. Rather, we’re seeing low cost carrier Transavia continue to provide extensive service from the airport, as it’s also growing its fleet with new Airbus A320neo aircraft, and it doesn’t serve Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Coinciding with these changes, Transavia is taking over the Air France lounge at the airport, and Flying Blue is adding new elite perks on Transavia, for those who still wish to fly out of the airport. All Air France employees previously working at Orly Airport were also guaranteed jobs at Charles de Gaulle Airport, if they wanted them.
Air France’s justification for cutting Orly Airport
Historically Air France’s presence at Orly Airport was focused primarily on short haul domestic flights, as well as leisure flights to French overseas territories. In recent years, we’ve seen France ban domestic flights in markets that have train connections that can be covered in under four hours. This in particular had an impact on Orly Airport, which saw most of these services.
When these planes were announced in 2023, Air France also noted how business travel demand has shifted, and that between 2019 and 2023, traffic on domestic routes out of Orly Airport fell by 40%, and demand for day return trips fell by 60%.
When you combine all of these factors, it was more efficient for Air France to just consolidate operations at one airport. Fortunately with Air France-KLM having a low cost carrier, the airline group can still have a presence at Orly Airport, just with a lower cost structure.
It’s not unlike British Airways’ strategy, as the airline has moved quite a few routes to London Heathrow Airport, while short haul flights out of London Gatwick Airport are exclusively operated with a subsidiary.
Bottom line
As of March 29, 2026, Air France has fully pulled out of Paris Orly Airport, in line with a plan that was announced back in 2023. The airline is consolidating operations at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, and then low cost carrier Transavia is increasing service at Orly Airport, while opening a lounge and adding new elite perks.
This seems like a sensible development for Air France, especially with the change in demand for domestic flights that we’ve seen in France in recent years. There’s of course value to having a single mega-hub in terms of connectivity.
What do you make of Air France pulling out of Orly Airport?
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