The "Direction de la Police aux Frontières" (head of French Border Police) and Groupe ADP have joined forces to draw up a monthly report on the waiting times encountered by passengers at the various border control points at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly Airports.
General trend observed in July and August 2024[1]:
For the record, the maximum waiting times at the Border Police in airports, targeted by the French Prime Minister - during the inter-ministerial council on tourism on 26th July 2017 -, are 30 minutes for European nationals and 45 minutes for non-Europeans.
- At Paris-Charles de Gaulle: out of nearly 6.2 million passengers on international flights[2], 94.5% waited less than 10 minutes, 4.1% between 10 and 30 minutes, 0.4% between 30 and 45 minutes and 0.2% more than 45 minutes.
- At Paris-Orly: out of nearly 2.3 million passengers on international flights, 97.4% waited less than 10 minutes, 2.4% between 10 and 30 minutes and 0.2% between 30 and 45 minutes.
Events resulting in waiting times of over 30 minutes [3]:
At Paris-Charles de Gaulle /
Week 27: 22 events impacting around 6,820 passengers, with an average waiting time of 44 minutes.
Week 28: 21 events impacting around 5,390 passengers, with an average waiting time of 43 minutes.
Week 30: 2 events impacting around 340 passengers, with an average waiting time of 41 minutes.
Week 31: 9 events impacting around 2,250 passengers, with an average time of 44 minutes.
Week 32: 7 events impacting around 2,590 passengers, with an average time of 46 minutes.
Week 33: 2 events impacting around 580 passengers, with an average time of 30 minutes.
Week 34: 4 events impacting around 2,310 passengers, with an average time of 45 minutes.
At Paris-Orly /
Week 27: 4 events impacting around 1,290 passengers, with an average waiting time of 42 minutes.
Week 28: 4 events impacting around 600 passengers, with an average waiting time of 40 minutes.
Week 29: 1 event impacting around 70 passengers, with an average waiting time of 39 minutes.
Focus on some events:
- Sunday, July 7th, between 5:50 and 10:00 a.m., departures border at Orly 3, the national breakdown of the computer system caused a slowdown in checks. Around 400 passengers waited up to 45 minutes on average.
- Friday, July 12th, between 10:20 and 12:00 am, departures at Terminal 1 at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, the Border guards were unable to absorb the departure traffic. Paris Airport teams broadcast audio announcements to inform passengers of the situation, explaining the slowdown, and additional hosts and hostesses were mobilized to assist the most vulnerable passengers. Around 800 passengers waited up to 50 minutes on average.
- Friday, July 12th, between 08:00 and 11:20 am, departures at Terminal 1 at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, on this first day of the summer peak, the large number of passengers and the coinciding arrival of the Olympic delegations led to longer waiting times. Around 1,000 passengers waited up to 80 minutes on average.
- Monday, August 5th, between 11:00 and 12:00 am, departures at Terminal 1 at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, interruption of controls at the PARAFE airlocks following a breakdown in the computer files used by the Border Police. The opening of all the gates enabled to limit waiting times and the number of passengers affected. Paris Airport staff broadcast audio announcements explaining the slowdown, and additional hosts and hostesses were mobilized to assist the most vulnerable passengers. Around 400 passengers waited up to 50 minutes on average
- Sunday, August 25th, between 07:30 and 09:20 am, arrivals at Terminal 2E at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, the large number of passengers not eligible for the PARAFE airlocks resulted in a very heavy workload for the Border Police at the aubettes. Paris Aéroport deployed its hospitality measures, such as distributing water and assisting and prioritizing vulnerable passengers. Around 1,900 passengers waited up to 50 minutes on average.
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Nearly 99% passengers waited less than 20 minutes
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Details of monthly results for July and August 2024 regarding Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly:
Share of departing and arriving passengers waiting by waiting time range
Methodology: real time data from counting sensors
Since 2019, Groupe ADP has deployed tools to monitor and control passenger flows and waiting times. In particular, sensors allowing the number of passengers to be counted in real time in a queue have been deployed to equip the border crossing and safety control areas of Paris Airports.
This is a real-time measurement tool that is automatically updated every five seconds. It counts the number of passengers in a queue by measuring how long the last person to leave the queue has been waiting.
Between 80 and 200 sensors are needed to cover an area, depending on its size.
The data is fed into an operational performance monitoring tool that analyses what has happened in an operational day. It is the data extracted from these sensors that is used to set up this barometer.
[1] In June 2024: at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, out of nearly 3.3 million international passengers, 84.6% waited less than 10 minutes, 13.9% between 10 and 30 minutes, 1.3% between 30 and 45 minutes, and 0.2% more than 45 minutes. At Paris-Orly, out of nearly 970 000 international passengers, 91.7% waited less than 10 minutes, 8% between 10 and 30 minutes and 0.2% more than 45 minutes.
[2] Passengers who have crossed a border on departure, on connection or on arrival at Paris-Charles de Gaulle or Paris-Orly are taken into account (not therefore passengers on domestic or Schengen flights).
