Air France has reserved the first announcement for its social partners on October 18, 2023: Orly, it's over! For its 90th anniversary, the company has decided to transfer all its flights for the French overseas departments departing from Paris-Orly to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport (Paris CDG). Secondly, air connections under public service delegation status with Corsica and shuttles to Marseille, Nice and Toulouse will be eliminated.
In reality, the scoop is not so huge for overseas users, one of the two daily flights of the company AiR FRANCE to Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion already being operated from Paris-CDG since April 2021, the other taking off from Paris-Orly. It is the elimination of regional flights that is causing certain stakeholders and territories to cringe at the announce of this decision.Traffic to the overseas islands from Paris-CDG will therefore be increased, to the detriment of Paris-Orly.
Flight to Guadeloupe from Paris CDG
Flights to Cayenne, in French Guiana, have already been transferred to Roissy, and those to the Antilles and Reunion will be transferred by the end of 2023. For its other flights to Corsica and shuttles to Marseille, Nice and Toulouse, the elimination of AIR FRANCE flights departing from Orly should be effective in 2026. The low-cost airline of the Air France Transavia group will take over.​
But then, is this bad news for whom?
Firstly for the employees because the decision underlies job cuts, to the great dismay of the unions of course, in a logic of the company's cost reduction policy, justified by a structural drop in domestic demand. For users, the imminent grouping of all AIR FRANCE flights to the overseas departments at Roissy should complicate connections for passengers on certain provincial flights who will have to resign themselves to crossing Paris to take their flight to Paris CDG, or to take a flight with another company for their transatlantic flight departing from Paris-Orly.Â
Flight Paris Guadeloupe
But for travelers coming from the north of France and Europe, this is very good news. They will be delighted not to have to go to Orly. For our Belgian, German and Dutch friends, the Eurostar (formerly Thalys) high-speed train connection stopping at Roissy Charles de Gaulle station will allow them to connect Guadeloupe and Martinique without connections from Aachen, Cologne, Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Charleroi, Ghent, Liège, Mons, Namur, Ostend, Amsterdam, Schiphol, Rotterdam. A boon for tourist operators who welcome an international clientele to the Antilles such as JADEN KREYOL, a rural lodge in Guadeloupe whose owner, of Dutch origin, speaks five languages. With his Guadeloupean wife, they have been operating this typical charming cottage since 2009 and are targeting a Northern European clientele. As proof, their website available in French, Dutch, German, English, and even Italian.
Tourist accommodation providers in Guadeloupe will be able to more easily accommodate travelers coming from the north of France and Europe
Travel to Guadeloupe
Indeed, for travelers coming from the Benelux or Germany, whether they leave their city of origin by train or plane, there was often a stopover at Roissy CDG to go to Orly by shuttle, taxi or by RER through Paris, with luggage to drag. This discouraged many travelers who preferred to go from Amsterdam to Sint Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire or Curaçao for example. For Henri KESSELS, tourist accommodation provider in Guadeloupe, Air France's decision opens new markets. The fact that three of the four daily flights to the West Indies took off from Orly was penalizing for the cities and countries located in the north of France. The Air Caraibes and Corsair companies continue to operate their routes from Paris-Orly which, ultimately, allows greater equity for travelers wishing to travel to the French West Indies, whether they come from the northern regions and countries or South of France.Â
Leaving with a fast TGVÂ train in the morning around 8 a.m. from Amsterdam station, a Dutch traveler is at Paris CDG airport at 11:30 a.m. to take his flight to Guadeloupe around 2:00 p.m. With the time difference of six hours (in summer time, see our article What time is it in Guadeloupe ?), he arrives there around 4:00 p.m., which for a transatlantic flight is still reasonable. From Brussels, the approach journey to Roissy - Charles de Gaulle airport by train is 1h45, instead of 3h30 from Amsterdam. A quick leap! And certainly, when you go from a winter climate to a tropical climate in a few hours, the trip is quickly forgotten!
New destinations
The French West Indies are still little-known destinations in Northern European countries, apart from French-speaking Belgians. Air Belgium had also set up a direct line to Pointe-à -Pitre and Fort-de-France from Brussels in 2019, but Covid probably dissuaded the company from perpetuating these lines. We can bet that daily Air France flights from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle will make our friends in the North want to come and discover the charm of French-style tropical destinations which offer a real change of scenery in terms of climate, nature and culture. The currency in the French Antilles is the Euro, which makes things much easier. As for language, more and more Guadeloupeans speak English, and they all use a universal language: a smile. So, adan we dot solèy? *
* In creole, litterally : See you in another sun ?
French Caribbean : Air France flies from Paris CDG