Paris Airport Transfer Guide: CDG, ORY and BVA Compared

Paris has three airports — Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Orly (ORY) and Beauvais (BVA). CDG is 30 km from the centre and handles long-haul, Orly is 16 km and handles mostly European and domestic, Beauvais is 85 km and handles budget carriers only. A pre-booked chauffeur from CDG to central Paris is €89 in an E-Class with meet & greet, flight tracking, and 60 minutes free wait. From Orly: €75. From Beauvais: €179 (it’s a different drive).

I plan something like 200 multi-airport Paris transfers a year for our corporate and leisure clients. Charles de Gaulle is by far the most common, but the question I get most often is the same one: “I’m flying into Orly — is it really worth a chauffeur if I’m closer to the centre?” Yes, and I’ll show you why.

Which Paris airport are you actually flying into?

Most travellers I speak to assume “Paris airport” means Charles de Gaulle. That’s true 70% of the time. But the other 30% is worth checking before you book anything.

• Long-haul (US, Asia, Middle East, Africa) → CDG, almost always.
• European legacy carriers (Lufthansa, KLM, Iberia) → usually CDG.
• Air France domestic and short-haul European → usually Orly.
• Easyjet → either CDG or Orly, check your ticket.
• Ryanair, Wizz Air → Beauvais, almost always.
• British Airways from London City → Orly.

If your ticket says “Paris (PAR)” that’s the city code and doesn’t tell you which airport. Check the IATA code: CDG, ORY or BVA. We’ve had clients book a Beauvais transfer thinking it was 30 minutes from Paris. It’s not. It’s 90.

CDG: the big one

Charles de Gaulle is 30 km north-east of central Paris. The drive is 50 minutes in normal traffic and pushes 75–90 minutes during the Friday-evening peak or Monday morning. Plan around that, not the Google Maps estimate.

The terminals are spread out. T2 is the big one with sub-terminals 2A through 2G. T1 is the older Air France hub being slowly retired. T3 is for low-cost. If you’re using a chauffeur, the terminal isn’t your problem — the meet & greet is the same anywhere. If you’re using a taxi or Uber, the rank and rideshare zones differ by sub-terminal and you’ll spend time hunting.

Getting from CDG to central Paris — every option

The RER B is what every guidebook recommends. I use it for solo, no-luggage, daylight trips. I do not use it after 9pm, with luggage, or with children. Theft on the RER B is a real problem and the line gets shut down for incidents more often than any other Paris airport link.

The fixed Paris taxi rate is genuinely one of the better deals in European airport transit — €56 to the right bank, €65 to the left bank, capped at any time of day, no surge. The catch is the queue. At 11am on Tuesday: 4 minutes. At 11pm on Sunday: 35–50 minutes. We’ve timed it.

Orly: the underrated one

Orly is 16 km south of central Paris. Closer than CDG, smaller, less chaotic. Most international travellers never see it. If you’re flying in on Air France from a French city, on British Airways from London City, or on Transavia from Amsterdam, you’ll probably land here.

The four terminals (Orly 1, 2, 3, 4) are connected by a free walkway. The Orlyval shuttle to the RER B was retired and replaced by an extension of Metro Line 14 in 2024, which now goes directly from Orly to central Paris in about 25 minutes. This is the single biggest change in Paris airport transit in a decade, and most online guides haven’t caught up.

Getting from Orly to central Paris

Honest take: if you’re solo with a carry-on landing at Orly during the day, take Metro Line 14. It’s faster than the chauffeur in central Paris traffic and a tenth of the price. If you’re a family, business team, or anyone landing late, book the chauffeur. €75 to Orly is one of the better-priced transfers in our network.

Beauvais: the wildcard

Beauvais is not in Paris. It’s in Picardy, 85 km north of central Paris. The drive is 90 minutes minimum in zero traffic, often 2 hours. The airport calls itself “Paris Beauvais” for marketing reasons. It’s misleading.

If you’re flying Ryanair or Wizz Air to Paris, double-check your ticket. BVA in the IATA code means Beauvais. CDG or ORY means actual Paris. The ticket price difference (often €30 cheaper) gets eaten by the transfer cost five times over.

Getting from Beauvais to central Paris

• Beauvais shuttle bus — €17, terminates at Porte Maillot. Takes 75 minutes if traffic is clean, 2+ hours in peak. Runs aligned to flight arrivals. The “cheap” option that costs you 4 hours of your day round-trip.
• Train — Beauvais SNCF station is 4 km from the airport, then a separate train to Gare du Nord. Don’t do this. It’s a 3-hour journey minimum.
• Pre-booked chauffeur — €179 in an E-Class, €229 in a V-Class for groups. We do plenty of these. The math works because the alternative is the shuttle bus eating half your day.
• Taxi — Not recommended. Beauvais doesn’t have a strong taxi pool, the metered fare can hit €200+, and finding one waiting at 11pm is not guaranteed.

“The number of clients who book a Ryanair flight to ‘Paris’, see €25 on Skyscanner, and assume the airport transfer is also €25 — it’s most of them. We end up doing emergency Beauvais transfers at midnight because someone realised the shuttle bus stopped running at 22:30.”

Marta Kowalska, European Routes Specialist

Same-day connections between Paris airports

If you have an inbound flight at one Paris airport and an outbound at another, you have three options and only one of them is sane.

• RER + Metro — CDG to ORY is theoretically possible via the RER B and Line 14 in about 90 minutes. With luggage and a connection deadline, please don’t.
• Air France Le Bus Direct — was the operator running direct inter-airport buses, then went bankrupt in 2020 and the service has been patchy since. Don’t rely on it.
• Pre-booked chauffeur — €105 for CDG↔ORY in an E-Class, scheduled around your connection. This is what we recommend. You don’t want to do this transfer on public transit with bags.

For Beauvais ↔ CDG or Beauvais ↔ Orly, the only practical option is a private transfer (€189–€229). The shuttle buses don’t go between airports.

Onward from Paris: the routes we do most

About 30% of our Paris airport bookings continue beyond the city centre. The most common onward routes:

• CDG → Disneyland Paris (Marne-la-Vallée) — €119 in an E-Class, 45 minutes. The Disney shuttle is OK if you’re patient. A chauffeur is the right call with kids.
• CDG → Versailles — €139. The RER C from central Paris is faster door-to-door, but adds a luggage-handling step.
• CDG → Reims — €299. We do this for champagne-house visits. TGV is faster (40 minutes from Gare de l’Est) but requires a transfer to central Paris first.
• CDG → Étretat or Honfleur (Normandy coast) — €389. Standard onward route for cruise clients heading to ports.
• ORY → Loire Valley châteaux — €299 to Amboise, €329 to Chambord. We see this for honeymoon and luxury leisure trips.

The five things to verify before booking any Paris transfer

1. Which airport is the flight actually arriving at? IATA code, not “Paris”.
2. Which terminal? CDG sub-terminals matter for taxi/Uber. For chauffeurs it’s informational.
3. Is the price fixed and all-in? Includes tolls, VAT, late-night surcharge if applicable. Paris has a €4 reservation surcharge on taxis booked in advance — should be in the quote.
4. Where will the chauffeur meet you? At CDG and Orly, inside the Arrivals hall with a name board. Not “outside the terminal”.
5. What happens if your flight is delayed? First 60 minutes after landing are free. Beyond that, our rate is €30/hour for additional wait at CDG (the airport’s hourly parking charges add up).

For the full picture on the Paris service, including the Mercedes fleet we use and the meet & greet protocol, see our Paris airport transfer page or the broader Paris chauffeur service. We also run regular routes from Paris to Strasbourg, Brussels, and Amsterdam.