France’s Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) issued an urgent NOTAM on Saturday evening instructing airlines to slash capacity at the capital’s two busiest gateways on Sunday, 15 February. Carriers must cancel 30 % of peak-hour services at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG) and 20 % at Paris-Orly (ORY) because forecasters expect freezing temperatures, sleet and up to three centimetres of snow across the Île-de-France region.
The pre-emptive measure is designed to reduce pressure on de-icing trucks, runway-clearing teams and overstretched air-traffic controllers so that the flights which do operate can run to schedule. Similar “preventive slashing” proved effective during the January blizzard, when proactive cancellations kept average delays under 40 minutes. Airlines have been told to notify passengers immediately and to prioritise long-haul connections and French overseas-territories services when drawing up reduced timetables.
Corporate travel managers should expect knock-on effects well beyond Paris: Air France has already pulled frequency on Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille shuttles to preserve long-haul rotations, while easyJet is thinning its London–Paris shuttle. Travellers heading to Monday morning meetings in the capital are advised to rebook onto later trains or consider Eurostar, which says it has spare seats but warns of possible speed restrictions between Calais and Lille if snow drifts build along the high-speed line.
![Paris airports ordered to cut Sunday flights as heavy snow forecast]()
For international passengers whose revised itineraries could affect visa validity, VisaHQ’s France portal (https://www.visahq.com/france/) offers a quick way to confirm entry requirements, expedite new applications and arrange courier pickup, helping travellers and mobility teams keep documentation in sync with fast-moving schedule changes.
Immigration queues could also lengthen. Airport operator Groupe ADP has warned that a shortage of ground staff might force it to close some PARAFE e-gates, routing arriving third-country nationals through manual booths just as biometric fingerprinting under the EU’s Entry/Exit System is ramping up. Mobility teams should therefore alert assignees to allow extra time on arrival and to monitor the DGAC’s @DGAC Twitter feed for real-time updates.
Although the snow event is forecast to clear by early Monday, meteorologists say a fresh Atlantic front could bring further wintry showers mid-week. Airlines therefore caution that schedules may remain “fragile” until at least Thursday and that waiver policies allowing free rebooking or refunds will stay in force.
The pre-emptive measure is designed to reduce pressure on de-icing trucks, runway-clearing teams and overstretched air-traffic controllers so that the flights which do operate can run to schedule. Similar “preventive slashing” proved effective during the January blizzard, when proactive cancellations kept average delays under 40 minutes. Airlines have been told to notify passengers immediately and to prioritise long-haul connections and French overseas-territories services when drawing up reduced timetables.
Corporate travel managers should expect knock-on effects well beyond Paris: Air France has already pulled frequency on Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille shuttles to preserve long-haul rotations, while easyJet is thinning its London–Paris shuttle. Travellers heading to Monday morning meetings in the capital are advised to rebook onto later trains or consider Eurostar, which says it has spare seats but warns of possible speed restrictions between Calais and Lille if snow drifts build along the high-speed line.
For international passengers whose revised itineraries could affect visa validity, VisaHQ’s France portal (https://www.visahq.com/france/) offers a quick way to confirm entry requirements, expedite new applications and arrange courier pickup, helping travellers and mobility teams keep documentation in sync with fast-moving schedule changes.
Immigration queues could also lengthen. Airport operator Groupe ADP has warned that a shortage of ground staff might force it to close some PARAFE e-gates, routing arriving third-country nationals through manual booths just as biometric fingerprinting under the EU’s Entry/Exit System is ramping up. Mobility teams should therefore alert assignees to allow extra time on arrival and to monitor the DGAC’s @DGAC Twitter feed for real-time updates.
Although the snow event is forecast to clear by early Monday, meteorologists say a fresh Atlantic front could bring further wintry showers mid-week. Airlines therefore caution that schedules may remain “fragile” until at least Thursday and that waiver policies allowing free rebooking or refunds will stay in force.
