PARIS, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Paris Orly airport, France's biggest airport for domestic flights, will shut down starting from Tuesday midnight until further notice as air traffic dwindles amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Paris-Orly: from March 31 at 11:30 p.m. until further notice, all flights operated are reassigned to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport," the airport announced on its website.
Paris-Orly handled only 10 flights and around 1,000 passengers on Tuesday while 600 flights and 90,000 passengers per day are expected under normal circumstances, according to French media.
Charles de Gaulle airport is also much less busy with some 10,000 passengers a day compared to 200,000 before the pandemic struck.
Airlines across the globe have grounded flights as the coronavirus pandemic forced travel bans in dozens of countries and put billions of people in lockdown.
France's tourism sector will lose 40 billion euros (43.84 billion U.S. dollars) per quarter in consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jean-Batiste Lemoyne, a junior minister in charge of tourism and foreign trade, told RMC radio earlier on Tuesday.
France projected a 30-40 percent loss in holidaymaker this year. With some 90 million tourists per year, tourism accounts for nearly 8 percent of the country's GDP. It generates 56.2 billion euros and creates 2 million jobs. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollars)
