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Second airports are often badly connected with the cities they serve. Rome Ciampino is much more difficult to reach by public transport than Fiumicino airport, which has an express rail link to the centre of the Italian capital as well as local train services. Istanbul’s shiny new airport has a rapid Metro connection into Turkey’s largest city – unlike tough-to-reach Sabiha Gokcen airport on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. One rare exception: Gatwick, which was deliberately built beside the main London-Brighton railway line and offers far better links than Heathrow.
For half a century, Paris has had a strict pecking order of airport connections. At the top, Charles de Gaulle, with its direct RER suburban rail link into Paris and out the other side. In addition, CDG has a high-speed rail station with direct TGV links to the north, east and south of France.
At the bottom, Beauvais: a pretty town in northern France, whose airport was built by occupying forces from Nazi Germany. Buses run from here to a car park in the western suburbs of Paris, with onward journeys into the centre from a hard-to-find Métro station.
And in between, Orly – the leading airport in France until 1974, when Charles de Gaulle opened and forced it into a distant second place.
In those days a smart Air France coach ran from Orly to an air terminal close to the Eiffel Tower. With relatively few passengers, that link sufficed. As aviation expanded, so did Orly. In 1991 a driverless shuttle known as Orlyval opened, connecting Orly with a station on the RER network called Antony. While it was a bit sci-fi – autonomous trains were still novel in the 20th century – any city-to-airport link that requires a connection is sub-optimal.
Finally, on 24 June 2024 – just weeks before the Paris Olympics – President Macron inaugurated the extension of Métro line 14 to Orly airport. And having tried the underground link on the first weekend of competition, I can testify it is a game-changer for the Games.
Many of Paris’s Métro stations are now a maximum of one change from Orly airport: there are intersections with 10 other lines. The extension provides a direct connection between Orly and two key main-line stations, St-Lazare (for Normandy) and Gare de Lyon for all points south to the Mediterranean.
Line 14 also serves Chatelet, the massive intersection at the heart of Paris, which includes the RER line to CDG airport. The Métro/RER combo is now the optimum way to travel between the two.
What happens at each airport end is instructive, too. The CDG railway station is a confusing mess with inadequate signposting and awkward access. Gaps between trains can stretch to 20 minutes (as they did, ridiculously, on day one of Olympic competition on Saturday).
In contrast, Orly’s Métro station is bright, well-indicated and intuitive. And if you just miss a train, there will be another one along in four minutes. Rumour has it that the frequency may, in time, increase to every 85 seconds. Once on board, the Métro speeds between the airport and city centre in just 25 minutes. This modern line has been built for speed, unlike the 19th-century network where stations pop up every few hundred metres.
Are you waiting for a “but”? Well, here it is. For occasional users, the premium for going to the very last stop, Orly, is a punishing 380 per cent. The normal €2.15 Métro flat fare rises to €10.30 for the final few minutes of the journey. Furthermore, anyone who fondly imagines an ordinary Métro ticket is sufficient will not be allowed out of the gates on arrival at Orly.
Instead they must queue to pay the full fare (and no, you don’t get any credit for the ticket you are holding). Orly Métro tickets must be loaded onto either a Navigo rechargeable card (costing an extra €2) or a smartphone. But in the latter case there is a catch that, if you already have regular Métro tickets store on your phone (as canny visitors do) then you can’t add an Orly ticket for fear of befuddling the system.
Even so, Orly is now my Parisian gateway of choice. As an airport it is far more user-friendly than Charles de Gaulle. And thanks to easyJet and Vueling it has steadily improving links to the UK.
In 2027 the biggest Paris airport will strike back. The much-delayed CDG Express will finally open, linking the airport with the city centre in just 20 minutes. The problem is, though: the Paris terminus is Gare de l’Est. A delightful station, but a good half-hour hike from the Seine. I will stick with the Métro to Orly.
