The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Coronavirus: and Orly airport closed, unprecedented

2020-04-01T10:18:38.294Z


Since Tuesday evening, the second airport in France is closed to commercial flights. A historic decision, taken by the State, for the sake of eco


Orly airport fell asleep. This Tuesday, at 11.59pm, the doors of the second largest French airport were closed, some of the lights were turned off and the heating was lowered by a few degrees. Who would have believed it? In the midst of euphoria, with traffic doubling every 15 years, the aviation sector is now on the ground. Folded, laminated by the coronavirus, which closed the borders, nailed the planes to the ground and plunged the airlines into their greatest crisis since the Second World War.

Imagine! While Orly receives an average of 80,000 travelers, 300 takeoffs and 300 landings per day, this Tuesday, only 1,500 passengers passed through the airport for six landings and as many takeoffs. A challenge! So, we had to imagine the unthinkable and take radical action: shut down the infrastructure, to save money, while waiting for better days.

According to the ADP group, which manages the Parisian platforms, the total closure of Orly and the partial closure of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, will save 125 million euros over three months.

The homeless evacuated from the terminal by the Red Cross

This Tuesday evening, a few hours before the closure of Orly 3, the last of the four terminals still open, airport officials are busy. Before going into hibernation, Orly is beautiful. Here they store chairs to avoid theft. There, they empty garbage cans or polish counters. While travelers are rare.

Officers from Orly airport store chairs to avoid theft. LP / Philippe Lavieille

The last passengers landed at 5.42 p.m. on an Iberia flight from Madrid (Spain). Among them, Jérôme, 35, seems a bit lost. “It's worse than I imagined. It is deserted. The Orlyval is closed and obviously there are no more buses. I don't know how I'm going to reach Paris and then go to my family in Bayonne, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques ”.

In this terminal 3, inaugurated just a year ago and which makes the junction between Orly west - now Orly 1 and 2- and Orly South - now Orly 4-, we can also meet journalists who came to cover this historic event, some security guards but especially homeless people. Like Sliman, a fifty-something man of Egyptian origin. Already nine months that he found refuge at Orly airport after a year spent in Madrid: "The Red Cross must evacuate us to a hotel or a gymnasium, says the SDF, almost relieved. It was getting hard. For five days, finding food had been complicated. The restaurants are closed and there are almost no more passengers. I'm getting hungry. ” How many are there to live like him at Orly airport? "At least seventy," replied Sliman. But many left when the first three terminals closed. ”

Closed stores and planes nailed to the ground

The first, Orly 2, locked its doors on March 17. The other two followed, a few days later. From now on, to get from one to the other, you have to go through construction barriers, made of wood, monitored by a security officer. Behind, shops and restaurants - there are 150 on the platform - all curtains down. Forget the noise of suitcases rolling on the ground, the announcements in all languages ​​and the joyous reunion between travelers. Only the cavernous noises of our steps and the clicking of escalators punctuate the crossing of the terminals. Welcome to a ghost airport.

The shops and restaurants - there are 150 on the Orly platform - have all lowered the curtain. LP / Philippe Lavieille

On the tarmac, the roar of the engines is over. Make way for silence! All the planes are grounded. They make concrete, as they say in the jargon. To the great happiness, no doubt, of riverside towns, such as Villeneuve-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne), whose red roofs of the houses are visible at the end of the slopes. Almost 80 aircraft are already parked on the 110 available places at the airport. One of the three tracks, the only one facing north-south, was even transformed into a parking lot. On the left, the predominantly green Boeing 737s from Transavia. Right, the EasyJet orange Airbus A320s. And in the center, the blue of the Corsair Boeing 747s. "But they will not remain static throughout the suspension of commercial flights, warns Michel Mandelle, the runway gentleman from Orly. Like a car, if you want an airplane to restart, you have to make it work. ”

Nearly 80 planes park on the 110 places available at Orly airport. LP / Philippe Lavieille

“It pays me” newsletter

The newsletter that improves your purchasing power

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more

On the program for these aircraft, the testing of engines, hydraulic systems, dashboards but also a few meters of taxiing to prevent the tires from deforming under the weight of the aircraft.

Essential services continue to operate

In short, despite its lethargy, Orly will move. Better still, his heart will continue to beat. "All essential services are working," repeats Michel Mandelle. Electrical systems, heating, sanitation, air navigation, Paf (Editor's note: Border police) , GTA (Editor's note: Air transport gendarmerie) , maintenance, emergency services. Even if commercial flights are suspended, we must be able to accommodate medical flights, diversions in the event of a problem on Roissy or even government and military aircraft. ”

So, to avoid the animals taking advantage of the lull to nest near the tracks, the officers in charge of the animal danger will be on the ground. And proof that Orly will not be completely stopped: "We should welcome this Wednesday evening an army flight that carries medical personnel, confides the manager of ADP. And the following days, planes will come to park here ”.

To monitor the 1,500 ha of the platform, the APOC, the airport's operational center, remains active. LP / Philippe Lavieille

No question either of leaving the airport open to the four winds. To monitor the 1,500 ha of the platform, including almost 500,000 m² of buildings, the APOC, the airport's operational center, the true “brain” of Orly, will be more active than ever. In this room covered with screens, the images of the 1400 cameras of the airport are displayed. "It will not be useless, says an internal source. At the beginning of last week, we had an intrusion on the Orly central park area. Fortunately, there were only slight degradations. No thefts ”.

80% of ADP employees with partial unemployment

But how many personnel will ensure the survival of Orly? "Unable to respond," says ADP. The only certainty is that this airport, a real city with its 25,000 employees, will be transformed, for several weeks, into a village: "The vast majority will be partially unemployed," regrets Daniel Bertone of the CGT. For ADP alone, this will affect 80% of employees ”. Another concern for the union, the reopening of the airport. “No one dares to date. But the risk is that the management favors Roissy, which will remain open, to the detriment of Orly ”.

On the ADP side, we assure it, as soon as the date is decided, Orly airport can be reopened quickly for commercial flights. "After two to four days," said the manager.

In any case, a day full of emotions. As proof, this flight to Point à Pitre, the last of an Air France plane from Orly. The crew requested a "water salute". In other words, the firefighters threw jets of water over the plane, before takeoff, to greet it. “It is a sign that the event was important, says a pilot of the national company. But this is only a goodbye ”.

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2020-04-01

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-18T06:31:22.966Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.