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Orly Airport

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Orly Airport |- |align="center" colspan="4"|

|- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|02/20 |valign="top" align="right"|7,874 |valign="top" align="right"|2,400 |valign="top"|Paved |- !align="left" valign="top"|06/24 |valign="top" align="right"|11,975 |valign="top" align="right"|3,650 |valign="top"|Paved |- !align="left" valign="top"|08/26 |valign="top" align="right"|10,892 |valign="top" align="right"|3,320 |valign="top"|Paved

Diagram of Orly airport
Enlarge
Diagram of Orly airport

Orly Airport is an airport located in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, south of Paris, France ([48°43′31″N, 2°21′34″E]). It has flights to cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Orly Airport has two terminals (west and south). It is linked to Paris by

A tramway link is foreseen in the near future.

Prior to the construction of Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Orly was the main airport of Paris.

Contents

Geography

Orly Airport extends over 15.3 km² (5.9 sq. miles) of land. It straddles two départements and seven communes: Management of the airport, however, is solely under the authority of Aéroports de Paris, which also manage Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Le Bourget Airport, and several smaller airports in the suburbs of Paris.

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.

Military Use

During World War II Orly Airport was used by the occupying German Luftwaffe and was repeatedly bombed by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force (USAAF), with runways, buildings and hangars being destroyed.

After the Battle of Normandy, Orly was repaired by the USAAF Ninth Air Force in July and August 1944 and used as tactical airfield A-47. The 50th Fighter Group flew P-47 "Thunderbolts" until September from Orly then liaison squadrons used the airfield until October 1945.

Until March 1947 the American USAAF 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's 1630th Air Base Squadron leased a small portion on the east side of the Airport as an air transport and cargo facility until 1967.

Post World War II international diplomatic and military travel was changing from ship and rail to aircraft transportation, requiring a special air terminal in the Paris area for NATO meetings. The primary use of Orly Airport was to meet the needs of political and military leaders going to Paris or traveling southeast to Fontainebleau, or west to Camp des Loges and Rocquencourt.

French military personnel board a C-124 Globemaster at Orly Field, Paris, bound for Indochina, May 3, 1954
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French military personnel board a C-124 Globemaster at Orly Field, Paris, bound for Indochina, May 3, 1954

In 1954 USAF C-124 transports assisted the French by airlifting 500 paratroop/commandos and their equipment to Indochina, landing at Da Nang's Tourane Airfield during March. It was the longest troop airlift in history at that time. Later, wounded French soldiers were flown back to Orly from Saigon by USAF transports after the battle of Dien Bien Phu in July.

By 1955 military flight operations from Orly were greatly reduced as the civil use of Orly was expanded. The United States Air Force's presence was reduced to supporting VIP transports and diplomatic flights, with most cargo and transport operations being shifted to Chateauroux-Deols Air Base about 125km southwest of Paris.

In 1967 the USAF closed their operations at Orly Airport, ending military use of the facility.

References

See also

Accidents and attacks

On 3 June 1962 a Boeing 707 chartered by Air France, flying to Atlanta crashed during take-off. There were 132 people on-board; 130 of them were killed. The only survivours were two stewardesses who were seated in the rear of the plane. They experienced minor injuries. At the time, this was the highest recorded death toll for an incident involving a single aircraft.

On January 13, 1975, several men, including Carlos (the Jackal), made an unsuccessful attempt to destroy an El Al airliner. The men tried again on January 17, again without success.

On July 15, 1983, the Armenian underground organization ASALA bombed a Turkish airline counter in the airport, killing eight people and wounding over 50.

South Terminal

West Terminal

All destinations for these airlines listed under South Terminal.

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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