Passenger Terminal World - January 2025
28 January 2025
Fresh off the success of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Renaud Duplay, Groupe ADP’s chief operating officer, explores the operating challenges Parisian Airports faced and the Games’ lasting legacy
What challenges did the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games present?
It was a tremendous operational and human challenge for which we had been preparing for over two years. We faced four major operational challenges.
First, we had to set up temporary facilities to accommodate the Paris 2024 arrival and departure operations so that accredited athletes could pick up their accreditation from a dedicated desk in each terminal. A total of 64,000 accredited guests – traveling with 115,000 pieces of luggage – passed through the Parisian airports during the Games. Based at Paris-CDG, a dedicated command center (involving teams from Groupe ADP, Paris 2024, Air France, airline associations and the relevant French state services) fine-tuned operational instructions for all these arrivals.
The second main challenge was baggage handling due to the thousands of sporting items. A significant number of these were oversized items, such as kayaks, poles and bicycles. A new oversized baggage reclaim point was created in Paris-CDG Terminal 2E. Two temporary airside facilities called ‘baggage factories’ were commissioned to handle the departure of this increased volume.
The third challenge was improving accessibility and hospitality, especially for people with disabilities, during the Paralympics and after. Around 150 improvements were implemented inside our terminals to secure the most suitable journey for people with disabilities. For instance, we created 42 assistance areas and three dog-friendly rooms. Paris-Orly and Paris-CDG are the first airports in France to offer changing rooms as well as quiet rooms for noise-sensitive travelers. We have also more than doubled the number of ambulifts and elevators to remove the heaviest wheelchairs from the hold. A total of 3,200 wheelchairs were carried to or from the boarding bridge so all the athletes were greeted with their wheelchairs at the airplane’s door.
The last challenge was the road traffic and surface access. This was addressed by a large number of coaches and buses to Paris-CDG and Paris-Orly. A new train station at Paris-Orly was also created, making it possible to reach central Paris in 25 minutes by subway.
Ref: Page 106 of Passenger Terminal World January 2025 - Passenger Terminal Today - 28 January 2025
