The effect of the Olympic Games held in Paris has had a "neutral" effect on traffic at the airports serving the French capital, the CEO of airport operator Groupe ADP said on Thursday.

"What we're seeing in our Paris airports is that (...) fewer tourists are coming to Paris without connecting. On the other hand, there are more connecting passengers. As a result, we now have roughly the same traffic at Charles de Gaulle and Orly as we would have without the Olympic Games," explained Augustin de Romanet on franceinfo.

"From the outset, it was planned to be neutral," added the executive, citing the example of the previous Olympics in Athens in 2004 and London, in 2012.

Traffic is in line with the group's forecasts at the start of the year, with 240,000 passengers a day at Charles de Gaulle and up to 115,000 passengers a day at Orly, says Augustin de Romanet.

At the beginning of July, Air France-KLM had said it was anticipating revenue losses due to significant avoidance of Paris on international markets. It estimated the impact for the June-August period at between €160 million and €180 million.

Augustin de Romanet believes, however, that the success of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games should boost the French capital's attractiveness to tourists.

"The number of tourists expected to come in 2025 will, I think, be very very increased," he said.

(Written by Blandine Hénault, edited by Kate Entringer)