CDG vs Orly

Do not choose an airport before comparing the flights.

It is easy to spend too much time comparing Paris ground transportation and too little time comparing the actual flights. In practice, the best airport choice may already be determined by the airline and route.

Charles de Gaulle is Paris’s major global hub. Groupe ADP has long described CDG as the airport hosting the majority of long-haul and intercontinental traffic, and the airport is substantially larger than Orly.

In the first half of 2026, Groupe ADP recorded approximately 34.5 million passengers at CDG, compared with around 17.1 million at Orly. Passenger volume alone does not make one airport better, but it illustrates the difference in scale.

Orly also handles international flights, including medium- and long-haul services. It should not be described simply as a domestic airport. The actual destination and airline schedule must be checked for the dates of your trip.

Orly is closer to Paris — but “closer” does not answer every trip.

Paris-Orly lies roughly 10 kilometres south of Paris. Charles de Gaulle is approximately 25 kilometres north-east of the city.

On a map, that gives Orly an obvious proximity advantage. But airport comparisons become more useful when you replace the centre of Paris with your actual hotel, apartment or meeting address.

A traveller staying somewhere easily reached by Metro 14 may find Orly particularly straightforward. Someone whose route connects naturally to RER B may find CDG more convenient than the raw distance suggests.

Road journeys are even more dependent on the exact address and traffic conditions. Paris is not one point on a map, and a road transfer should never be estimated only from the airport’s distance from the city boundary.

Metro 14 and RER B make the public transport comparison surprisingly balanced.

One of the most important changes in the CDG vs Orly comparison is that Orly now has a direct Metro connection. Metro line 14 links Aéroport d’Orly with Paris, and RATP gives approximately 25 minutes between Orly and Châtelet–Les Halles.

Charles de Gaulle is served by RER B. Île-de-France Mobilités states that trains operate roughly every 6 to 15 minutes, with service extending from early morning until around midnight under the normal timetable.

In 2026, the standard Paris Region ↔ Airports ticket costs €14 for either airport: CDG via RER B, and Orly via Metro 14 or Orlyval.

This is important because price alone no longer separates the principal rail options. The useful question becomes: which line places you closer to the final address?

For a detailed breakdown of each route, see our separate guides to the best ways from CDG Airport to Paris and how to get from Orly Airport to Paris .

Orly has lower regulated Paris taxi fares.

When comparing official Paris taxis rather than public transport, the difference between the airports becomes clearer.

French regulated taxi rules set maximum flat airport fares for qualifying journeys between Paris proper and CDG or Orly.

These are regulated Paris taxi fares. They are not prices for separately booked private chauffeur or VTC services, which use their own pricing.

The official taxi comparison therefore favours Orly on price, but that should not be used in isolation to select a flight. A cheaper airport taxi is rarely enough reason to accept a significantly worse airfare or schedule.

CDG feels like a major hub because it is one.

Airport size affects the experience before the passenger ever reaches Paris.

Charles de Gaulle covers a very large area and has multiple terminal halls. Depending on the airline and flight, passengers may encounter Terminal 1, Terminal 3 or one of the different Terminal 2 areas.

Groupe ADP has acknowledged that international and connecting travellers can sometimes find the current CDG terminal naming system difficult to navigate. A complete renaming of the terminals is planned for March 2027.

Orly is smaller and is organised as a single terminal complex divided into Orly 1, Orly 2, Orly 3 and Orly 4. Smaller does not guarantee that every journey is faster, but the overall airport layout is different from the scale of CDG.