Orly airport: prehistory, origins and timeline

It was in 1954 that the navy left the area to make way for the future international airport of Paris-Orly. With very encouraging traffic from the first month, the airport had two modern terminals, which were visited as monuments. However, this progress was slowed down by the impossibility of expanding into the surrounding area. Since 1954, the airport has been expanded, but only by following binding measures such as land requisitioning. These works also led to the misappropriation of National 7 in order to optimize the airport's sideboard. The architecture of Orly will soon become a stopover.

One of the most visited places in France in 1965 was the luxury commercial galleries and movie theaters at Orly airport. With 4 million visitors in 1965, Orly became the most frequented site in France, followed closely by the Eiffel Tower. As passenger traffic continued to intensify (50% more than its theoretical capacity in 1969), it was decided to build the West Terminal, which was inaugurated in 1971. Its design, with departures on the upper level and arrivals on the ground floor, was new for its time and would often be imitated. A fourth runway was also built.

Timeline:

• October 24th, 1945: creation of the public establishment.
• 1946: first provisional terminal of Paris-Orly, redevelopment of Paris-Le Bourget. An annual average of 300,000 passengers passed through the terminal.
• 1947: first runway built, with a length of 2,100 meters. Opening of the provisional terminal at Orly Nord.
• 1952: Air France joins Paris-Orly, and the traffic reaches 1.2 million passengers in the year, twice as many as Paris-Le Bourget.