No-fly zones, traffic bans and metro ticket hikes at Paris Olympics

PARIS (Agencies): French Transport Minister Clement Beaune confirmed on Thursday a no-fly zone over Paris on the evening of the Olympic Games opening ceremony next July, and tried to reassure people that the transport system could handle an expected surge in numbers.

No-fly zone: There will be a no-fly zone from 1900-0000 local time on the night of the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony on July 26. This no-fly zone will span an area of 150 kilometres. This will also mean there will be no arrivals or departures out of Paris’ three main airports of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais for that period. The no-fly zone risks disruption to leading global airlines which fly into Paris, such as Air France-KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa, Emirates, American Airlines and Singapore Airlines. The Paris no-fly zone echoes a similar measure set in place by Britain for the London 2012 Olympics.

Road traffic: Car traffic during the Paris 2024 Olympics will be restricted with pre-registration necessary to enter several zones.

Paris metro tickets: The price of a single metro journey during the Olympics will nearly double to 4 euros from 2.10 euros. In a bid to soothe concerns among the city’s actual residents that the Olympics will see them face higher costs in their day-to-day lives, Beaune said the price of a monthly Navigo public transport pass would not go up during the games. Nevertheless, a row has broken out between Paris’ Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo and the right-wing politician Valerie Pecresse, who leads the administrative body for the greater Paris region, over how public transport will cope with the Olympics. Hidalgo has warned the Paris transport network will not be able to cope with the expected surge in passenger numbers during the Olympics, while some wheelchair users have also expressed concerns over how they will cope during the event.