Travel: Flights to Paris from London Heathrow (lhr)

Paris is served by three international airports - for more information, including arrival/departure times, check the official sites.

Charles de Gaulle International Airport (Roissy ICAO: LFPG, IATA: CDG) to the north-east of the city is one of the major hub airports of Europe. It's notoriously confusing, so allow plenty of time for transfers. There are three terminals: Terminal 1, Terminal 2 (which is huge and subdivided into 2A through 2F), and Terminal 3 (formerly T9). Free navette shuttle buses connect the terminals together.

For getting to or from Paris, RER-B has stations in T1 (from where you can walk to T3) and T2; trains to Paris (Châtelet-Les Halles) leave every 15 minutes, cost €8,50 each and take around 40 minutes, making this the fastest and cheapest way to connect. Alternatively, the Roissybus service connects all terminals directly to Opéra Garnier in central Paris, but it's subject to traffic jams and takes 60-90 minutes even on a good day. There is also a TGV station in T2 for high-speed connections towards Lille and Brussels.

Orly International Airport (ICAO: LFPO, IATA: ORY), to the south-west of the city, and served by a southern branch of the RER-B line. This older international airport is used mainly by Air France for national lines, and other international carriers in Europe. Orly is roughly forty minutes from Paris via the OrlyBus, which departs from Metro Denfert-Rochereau; the price is €6.

Beauvais (Aéroport de Paris Beauvais Tillé ICAO: LFOB, IATA: BVA), to the north of the city, is a smaller regional airport is used by some low-cost carriers, such as RyanAir. The airport operates a shuttle service connecting with the Métro at Porte Maillot station. Buses leave 20 minutes after each flight arrives, and a few hours before each flight departs. This is important: you should be there waiting for the bus around three hours and fifteen minutes before your flight, and the bus stop has no facilities, it's just a parking lot! Exact times can be found on the Beauvais Airport website. The journey will take about an hour in good traffic conditions, and costs €13 each way (as of October 2006).

In addition to public transport, Air France operates shuttles between Charles de Gaulle and Paris (€10 - €12), Orly and Paris (€7.5) and between the two airports (€15). Note that if you have connecting Air France flights that land and depart from different airports, you would still generally need to fetch your luggage after landing, catch either the Air France shuttle or a taxi to the other airport and check-in again. This altogether could take up to 2 hours particularly if traffic is at its worse. It is also common to lose time during disembarkment as passengers often need to get off at the tarmac and get on buses which will bring them to the terminal building. Be sure to have sufficient time between flights to catch your connection. Note that check-in counters usually close 30 minutes before the flight departs.

To get to the city center you'll need a Noctilien bus if you arrive to CDG Airport at night. The bus stops in all three terminals (in terminal 2 it will be the second level in departure section - it is very difficult to find, but it really exists). The bus leaves every 30 minutes after 00:30 (see timetable). The buses you'll need are N121 and N120, the price is 7 Euro.