Olympics Opening Ceremony 2024: Epic no-fly zone across Paris for hours

It’s one of the busiest days of the year for aviation in Europe, but one city saw almost no plane pass over in scenes never before witnessed.

If you were standing along the Seine or perhaps perusing the streets of Paris during the Opening Ceremony and hoped to do a bit of plane spotting — you would’ve been hard out of luck.

French officials put extensive restrictions on the airspace around Paris — about the size of Belgium — throughout the opening ceremony on Friday night local time, restricting aircraft in an 80 nautical mile radius around the city.

This meant banning all flights during the ceremony.

“Until Friday 26 July, you will need a digital pass to travel to some areas of Paris because of preparations for the Olympic opening ceremony,” the UK Foreign Office warned.

“Different rules will apply depending on whether you are travelling on foot, by bike, or by car or another vehicle.”

A map from FlightRadar showed a sudden drop in air traffic around the city, when restrictions took effect at just after 3pm local time.

For more than five hours — from 4pm and 9.30pm local times — air traffic in the skies around Paris came to a complete standstill.

The FlightRadar map over Paris during the Opening Ceremony.

According to FlightRadar, the restrictions that were put in place for aircraft rolled out in three phases.

Phase 1 involved the halting of arrivals in to airports in the Paris area, including the always popular Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.

But in total, eight airports were impacted by the cease-fly order, including Le Bourget Airport, Paris-Saclay-Versailles Airport, Melun Villaroche Airport, Pontoise Cormeilles Airport, Lognes – Émerainville Aerodrome and BVA Beauvais-Tille Airport.

It is reported that because of the restrictions, Charles de Gaulle Airport had around 300 fewer flights on the day of the opening ceremony than the previous Friday, while Orly had about 200 fewer flights scheduled.

The impact of the flight restrictions over Paris during the Opening Ceremony was substantial. Picture: FlightRadar

The next phase meant a temporary closure to all flights within the restricted area, including any overflights passing through from 4pm to 9.30pm local time.

Based on Flightradar24 data, the website suggests that the restrictions on Paris airports and overflights will affect a combined 2,200 flights, with the most impacted airlines being Air France, Ryanair and easyJet.

The final phase, being Phase 3, allows departures from Charles de Gaulle to restart at 9.30pm local time, however restrictions remained in place for other flights until just before midnight when overflights and arrivals could resume once again.

The area where planes were not allowed to fly. Picture: FlightRadar.

As one of the busiest airports in Europe, especially during the lucrative summer season — airlines were forced to trim flight schedules to airports in Paris during the restricted period.

Looking at the FlightRadar overflights maps, surrounding countries appeared to have a significant increase in overflights, with some forced into lengthy re-routes.

Normally, according to The Independent, the final Friday of July brings one of the most popular days for flights around Europe.

According to reports, the no-fly zone was imposed due to fears of a terrorist attack.

The French Civil Aviation Authority (known as DGAC) said prior to the closure that the temporary prohibited area “is created to ensure the implementation of the special air security arrangements as part of the protection of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games 2024.”