Nantes Atlantique, a new thorn in the government’s side? More than three years after the fiasco of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Loire-Atlantique) project, the redevelopment of the existing airport, south of Nantes, could still give rise to a legal standoff.
The project, hampered by the Covid-19 crisis – which saw the platform’s traffic collapse to 2.3 million passengers in 2020, far from the record recorded in 2019 with 7.2 million passengers -, returns to the spotlight. Goodbye to the procrastination of spring: the question of the lengthening of the airport runway is resolved, announced, Monday, September 20, Yoann La Corte, in charge of the Nantes Atlantique project at the General Directorate of Civil Aviation ( DGAC).
The track must therefore be extended by 400 meters in its southern part, in the direction of Saint-Aignan-de-Grandlieu, a riverside town of 4,000 inhabitants. This operation, the gain of which was presented as “marginal” by many experts in the file in March, has the advantage, in the eyes of the DGAC, “To slightly increase the height of the overflight of the Nantes agglomeration” in order to limit noise pollution.
Environmental impact deemed “low”
For “Control noise”, the state also promises “An improvement in aircraft trajectories”, as well as their mix, from 2023, by opting for “A so-called dual approach scenario”. The landing thresholds, in the north as in the south, will also be shifted by several hundred meters in order to increase the overflight attitudes of the planes. A curfew, banning landings and take-offs between midnight and 6 a.m. – except in emergencies and return of planes based in Nantes – will finally come into force in May 2022.
Thanks to these different measures, “26,000 inhabitants of the metropolis will leave the noise zone, a drop of 35%”, says Yoann La Corte. And this even if the population of the Nantes metropolis will see it pass overhead “55% of thefts, compared to 40% today”. The town of Saint-Aignan will no longer be “only” overflown by 45% of the traffic, against 60% today.
“The lengthening of the track will not lead to a deterioration of the situation of Saint-Aignan”, continues Mr. La Corte. The environmental impact of the project is qualified as ” weak “ by the DGAC. Six farms will still be affected. As well as housing. Expropriations cannot be ruled out. “With this redevelopment, the town of Saint-Aignan finds itself sacrificed, ton Frédéric Chauchet, elected municipal officer in charge of monitoring the airport file. All the development of the village will be blocked. And I do not see how we will be able to maintain the two existing schools where they are, with the noise of the planes. “
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