Paris Orly airport 'set for 450-mn-euro revamp'

Orly airport, the second hub in France, is set for a revamp costing up to 450 million euros ($580 billion) linking its two terminals, the ADP Paris airport manager said on Wednesday. "We confirm there is a Orly modernisation project," an ADP spokesman told AFP following a report in the online daily La Tribune that Paris' second airport would get a 700-million-euro makeover. "The cost of the investment of the project is between 400 and 450 million euros," he added. ADP sent out invitations for an October 17 presentation that promises a single terminal by 2018, which the La Tribune online newspaper said would be achieved by the construction of a new building between the current terminals. The new facility would be able to handle Airbus' A380 super jumbo, and be connected to Paris via a metro line and also include a station for France's high-speed rail network, it added. Orly, which serves primarily destinations to southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, has not had so much investment as Paris' top Charles de Gaulle airport in recent years. The expansion would allow Orly to handle up to 40 million passengers per year from 27 million currently, mostly by increasing plane size rather than increasing the number of flights, the newspaper said on its website.