Le 26 June will mark the reopening ofOrlyclosed at the end of March. Terminal 3 will house 130 daily flights instead of the 650 flights on the platform as a whole. Services will be provided to Corsica, a dozen Schengen countries including Portugal and Greece, and the overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion. Depending on traffic trends, Aéroports de Paris plans to reactivate Orly 4, then Orly 1 and 2. But Orly also remains in the spotlight with the recent statements by the Secretary of State for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebarri, on Air France's future activity at the hub.
We knew thatfinancial assistance from seven billion euros granted by the French government to Air France was with counterparties for the carrier, which has been ordered to restructure its network by abandoning routes deemed unprofitable not only economically but also ecological. In the eye of the storm, the government was targeting domestic airlines in particular, for which the train is an alternative for journeys not exceeding 2h30. Air France has already committed to a 40% reduction in its offer on domestic routes, in particular with the discontinuation of certain routes from Orly but also by suspending most of the cross-border routes of its subsidiary HOP! Air France - with the exception of routes serving its regional hub in Lyon.
This Monday, Jean-Baptiste Djebarrihas indicated that it is working on a decree that would prohibit the takeover of future routes abandoned by Air France by any other operator - notably easyJet, not to be named. Such a decree would have only limited consequences for the airport.Orlyand in fact appears to be more of a political communication operation.
On the cross-cutting themes from region to regionthe decree as formulated by the government would have no impact a priori, most of the rail links well over the two-and-a-half-hour mark. For example, according to the SNCF booking website, the fastest journey between Bordeaux and Nantes peaks at 4h35, between Marseille and Toulouse in 3 hours 45 minutes, between Lille and Nantes in 4 hours 08 minutes and between Strasbourg and Marseille in 6 hours 28 minutes.
This two-and-a-half-hour limit on the duration of a journey had already been stated by the French Minister for the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on 30 April. " Where there are rail alternatives to a domestic flight of less than two and a half hours, these domestic flights should be drastically reduced and limited to transfers to a hub. "said Mr Le Maire at the time. A flight should no longer be used for a journey of one or one and a quarter hours when it could be made, at a lower emission cost, by train in two or two and a half hours. This should be the rule and we will ensure that it is respected." he added.
Notwithstanding the commercial decision ofAir France to concentrate the services offered by its subsidiary HOP at Roissy CDG and Lyon - the details of this restructuring of the network are due to be specified by the group before the end of the month - the decree should therefore leave other airlines free to position themselves in the place left vacant by the announced departure of Air France. ASL has announced its intention to position itself on new domestic routes, with the airline currently carrying out a test between Paris CDG and Pau. It is likely that the regional carrier Volotea will also find fertile ground for the expansion of its network.
For departures from Orly, the restrictions will primarily affect the Paris-Bordeaux served by the shuttle. There are also still two or three daily flights from Orly to Lyon and Nantes. However, all the other routes currently operated by HOP or the Air France shuttle do not have a 2.5-hour rail alternative. The journey time on the Paris-La Rochelle rail line is still just over three hours...
As for the idea that the radial routes from Orly to Bordeaux, Lyon and Nantes could be taken over by the competition, the answer is obvious. These routes have never tempted other carriers, especially with the rise of the TGV. The chances are slim that they will suddenly inspire new vocations. If there is a battle, it could involve the only link between Paris Orly and Bordeaux.
And we can imagine that the industrial and agri-food lobbies, the airports, the chambers of commerce and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region will try to push hard to keep this route. The government is forgetting that the areas around Orly and Mérignac are two major economic areas. Orly is in fact the the leading economic hub in the southern Ile-de-France region with 18,000 businesses and Europe's largest fresh produce market at Rungis. Mérignac, on the other hand, has 1,500 businesses, including a major aerospace and defence sector. Preserving at least three daily flights between Orly and Bordeaux would therefore make perfect sense. It's a safe bet that the economic players in both areas are already working hard to find a compromise with the government.
All the more so as this famous decree that the government would like to pass could be considered illegal by the European Union. It runs counter to European directives that guarantee total freedom of traffic rights for all EU airlines, regardless of the route they serve...
However, there is another threat to domestic airlines in the form of the " citizen convention ". In its proposals, the convention suggests that the ban on air travel should be extended to routes served by train in less than 4 hours. Several dozen other domestic routes could then be affected, if this proposal is approved.
