Closure of borders, “climate” law, opposition from local residents… Bad weather for airports. French platforms are barely recovering after a decidedly very long Covid-19. In 2021, they welcomed some 70 million passengers throughout France, or 39% of what they welcomed in 2019 (180 million), the last year before the onset of the pandemic, according to data from the general management of commercial aviation. The leading French airport, Roissy (Aeroports of Paris group), saw only 26.2 million passengers pass through its terminals, or 34.4% of its traffic in 2019.
However, the dragging crisis is weighing on the finances of airport managers. To meet its obligations, Groupe ADP was forced to complete a loan of 4 billion euros in December 2021. In regional airports, it is also time for savings, especially as the end of the crisis recedes. Even before returning to their pre-Covid-19 traffic, airports will have to manage the financing of their security costs, but also the rise of environmental claims from local residents and authorities.
Until 2019, “airports were a little world apart that enjoyed an annual traffic growth of 5% to 10% and thought it would be forever”, points out Gilles Leblanc, president of the Airport Nuisance Control Authority (Acnusa). However, airports must finance security and safety missions. A cost supported, French exception obliges, by the passengers by means of an airport tax. A levy that has not brought in enough for two years due to a lack of passengers.
In total, laments Thomas June, president of the Union of French airports (UAF): “We are already at 630 million euros of shortfall. » The State has decided to pay an advance of more than 700 million, but it will have to be repaid from 2024. This additional cost falls when “airports will have to integrate the cost of decarbonization into their economic model”, adds the boss of the UAF, with the commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in 2030.
“Many flaws”
More fundamentally, the development of airports is now restricted after the citizens’ convention for the climate. The government had already buried the Notre-Dame-des-Landes project near Nantes in 2018 and, in early 2021, the project for the new T4 terminal in Roissy, “This project, which could be justified before the crisis, is no longer relevant as it stands. It’s iconic.”, says Edward Arkwright, executive managing director of ADP.
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