Ryanair, Volotea… new airlines arriving at Orly airport next year

Departing from Paris-Orly airport, travelers will be spoiled for choice next year. As of 1^is April 2025, Ryanair will launch two daily round trips from the airport in the south of the capital. A first for the European low-cost airline, which until now operated flights from Beauvais airport. According to Les Échos, the two destinations are already known, namely Bratislava in Slovakia and Bergamo in Italy.

A turnaround even though the leading European low-cost airline had threatened to stop serving ten French airports last week. In question, the government's bill to triple the Chirac tax on plane tickets. Cohor, the independent body responsible for allocating slots at major airports, has therefore decided otherwise. It recently redistributed 8,000 slots put into play, of which Ryanair is one of the new beneficiaries.

11 new rotations per day

Among the new entrants is also Volotea, which has obtained enough to operate 13 flights per week from Orly. The Catalan company will strengthen its offer in Italy and will serve Ancona, Olbia, Alghero, Turin and Verona. The Polish company Lot will operate a daily flight to Warsaw. But it will have to redouble its efforts in the face of the low-cost company Wizz Air which will launch two new rotations per week to the Polish capital. Air Corsica has, for its part, recovered enough to complete its program on Figari.

The airlines already present at Paris-Orly airport also stand to benefit from this redistribution. Transavia France will launch a new daily route to Amsterdam while Easyjet will add Skopje, in Macedonia, Sofia and Southampton to its flight program. Vueling will also serve Salerno in Italy, Wizz Air will offer flights to London-Gatwick four times a week and ASL Airlines will launch a daily service to Algiers. A single long-haul destination will be provided by the French company French Bee, which will connect Montreal five times a week. But, unlike new entrants who are required to use their slots for the requested destinations, existing companies will be able to change their routes.

“These 8,000 slots represent enough to operate around 11 new rotations per day, underlines the director of Cohor, Antoine Lapert. Their reallocation meets specific regulatory criteria. Half must go to new entrants. Namely companies with less than 5 daily slots at Orly. The other half must be used as a priority to serve intra-European lines, with additional priority for new connections, monopoly lines and those where competition is limited to two operators..

These 8,000 slots correspond to some which were abandoned by companies having closed routes such as Air Dolimiti, or even those of airlines which have never managed to operate them such as the Breton company Céleste. The Cohor also recovered some, due to lack of sufficient use, as provided for by European regulations.