More than five years after the State sounded the death knell for the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project (Loire-Atlantique), the serene cohabitation between the concessionaire of the Nantes Atlantique platform, airlines and local residents infrastructure, promised by the government, is still utopian.
The airport redevelopment project remains at a standstill, while air traffic is picking up again. In this context, the government would have done well without a new annoyance. In this case, it is a letter from Gilles Leblanc, the president of the Airport Nuisance Control Authority (Acnusa), addressed to the prefect of Loire-Atlantique, Fabrice Rigoulet-Roze, with copies sent to the director general of civil aviation and the head of legal affairs at the ministry for ecological transition.
In this letter, that The world was able to consult, Mr. Leblanc questions the effectiveness of the curfew aimed at banishing planes from the skies of the Nantes metropolis between midnight and 6 am. “More than 350 aircraft movements were made during the curfew period in the first nine months” which followed the promulgation of the measure by ministerial decree, on April 8, 2022, reports Mr. Leblanc, who specifies that these violations resulted in “225 lawsuits initiated by the civil aviation administration”.
Challenging Sanctions
Despite educational work carried out for “prevent the risk of recurrence”, the skids, which are mainly due to low cost airlines, persist, notes the president of Acnusa. The wording of the ministerial decree relating to the curfew of Nantes-Atlantique is badly put together, he deplores. The text mentions that companies experiencing a flight delay for reasons beyond their control can take off or land their aircraft during the curfew. Result: many companies ” outlaw “ try to discard on the “difficulties encountered by air navigation operators, and particularly the country’s air traffic control”notes Mr. Leblanc.
Airlines violating the measure defy the threat of fines (40,000 euros maximum) and almost systematically file appeals to contest the sanctions. The Spanish low-cost airline Volotea, which holds the palm for infringements in 2022, has taken legal action “to challenge 123 of the 148 fines notified to it”, reveals Mr. Leblanc. And this, even if current case law stipulates that carriers are accountable for their flight scheduling, and therefore for the delays incurred, except in cases of force majeure, such as the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010.
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