Air

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport is the busiest airport in continental Europe.[271]

Paris is a major international air transport hub with the 4th busiest airport system in the world.
The city is served by three commercial international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly
and Beauvais-Till. Together these three airports recorded traffic of 96.5 million passengers in
2014.[272] There is also one general aviation airport, Paris-Le Bourget, historically the oldest
Parisian airport and closest to the city centre, which is now used only for private business flights
and air shows.
Orly Airport, located in the southern suburbs of Paris, replaced Le Bourget as the principal
airport of Paris from the 1950s to the 1980s.[273] Charles de Gaulle Airport, located on the edge
of the northern suburbs of Paris, opened to commercial traffic in 1974 and became the busiest
Parisian airport in 1993.[274] Today it is the 4th busiest airport in the world by international
traffic, and is the hub for the nation's flag carrier Air France. [268] Beauvais-Till Airport, located
69 km (43 mi) north of Paris's city centre, is used by charter airlines and low-cost carriers such as
Ryanair.
In 2014 the main domestic and international destinations served by the three commercial airports
of Paris were the following:

Busiest destinations from Paris

airports (CDG, ORY, BVA) in 2014
Domestic destinations

Passengers

Toulouse

3,158,331

Nice

2,865,602

Bordeaux

1,539,478

Marseille

1,502,196

Pointe--Pitre

1,191,437

Saint-Denis (Runion)

1,108,964

Fort-de-France

1,055,770

[show]Other domestic destinations

International destinations Passengers
Italy

7,881,497

Spain

7,193,481

United States

6,495,677

Germany

4,685,313

United Kingdom

4,177,519

Morocco

3,148,479

Portugal

3,018,446

Algeria

2,351,402

China

2,141,527

[show]Other international destinations

Domestically, air travel between Paris and some of France's largest cities such as Lyon,
Marseille, or Strasbourg has been in a large measure replaced by high-speed rail due to the
opening of several high-speed TGV rail lines from the 1980s. For example, after the LGV
Mditerrane opened in 2001, air traffic between Paris and Marseille declined from 2,976,793
passengers in 2000 to 1,502,196 passengers in 2014.[275] After the LGV Est opened in 2007, air
traffic between Paris and Strasbourg declined from 1,006,327 passengers in 2006 to 157,207
passengers in 2014.[275]
Internationally, air traffic has increased markedly in recent years between Paris and the Gulf
airports, the emerging nations of Africa, Russia, Turkey, Portugal, Italy, and mainland China,
whereas noticeable decline has been recorded between Paris and the British Isles, Egypt, Tunisia,
and Japan.[276][277]

Motorways

Ring roads of Paris

The city is also the most important hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by
three orbital freeways: the Priphrique,[78] which follows the approximate path of 19th-century
fortifications around Paris, the A86 motorway in the inner suburbs, and finally the Francilienne
motorway in the outer suburbs. Paris has an extensive road network with over 2,000 km
(1,243 mi) of highways and motorways.
Waterways

The Paris region is the most active water transport area in France, with most of the cargo handled
by Ports of Paris in facilities located around Paris. The Loire, Rhine, Rhone, Meuse and Scheldt
rivers can be reached by canals connecting with the Seine, which include the Canal Saint-Martin,
Canal Saint-Denis, and the Canal de l'Ourcq.[278]