That was five years ago, to the day. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the abandonment of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project. “There is a credible alternative to the transfer. This solution is the reorganization of Nantes-Atlantic “, assured Edouard Philippe. But five years later, the situation at Nantes airport, pointed out for being too close to the heart of the metropolis and on the verge of saturation, has not really improved. “There is still a buried anger, that’s clear. There is even pain. It is more or less blurred depending on where you live, how you see things,” says Jean-Claude Lemasson, mayor of Saint-Aignan-Grandlieuwhere locals built their lives thinking the nearby airport was going to move.
In this commune, and in the neighboring towns, residents living near the airport remember the amazement when the then Prime Minister declared: “the conditions are not met to carry out the planned airport project”. in Notre-Dame-des-Landes for half a century. The inhabitants still suffer from the nuisance of planes. With the notable exception of periods of confinement, during which air traffic had been greatly slowed down. “It made us funny, we were able to live outside quietly,” recalls Jean-Claude Lemasson. “It was quite a delightful moment, in the sense that we could hear the sound of birds again! »
A curfew created, but not always respected
The most concrete change made in Nantes-Atlantique in recent years is the establishment of a curfew, in force since the spring, which prohibits planes from landing or taking off between midnight and 6 a.m. “It is a heavy commitment, which was made for the populations bordering Nantes-Atlantique, which are quite numerous, and who for decades believed that the airport was going to leave for Notre-Dame-des-Landes”, justifies the former prefect of Loire-Atlantique, Didier Martin.
The curfew is “a measure that we had to play arm wrestling” and “which is not respected”, deplores Julie Laernoes, EELV deputy for the 4th district of Loire-Atlantique, where a large part of the population lives. overflown populations. Indeed, since April 8, more than 300 flights have not respected the curfew. “Most of the offenses were observed in the first months”, nuance the former prefect. The curfew, he recalls, is part of 31 measures to which the State has committed following a consultation completed in the fall of 2019.
We find among its measures, aid for soundproofing for housing, or even “the creation (…) of what is called the right to abandonment, which does not exist anywhere else, that is to say the possibility for the State to buy the houses of the populations who are most exposed to nuisances”, underlines Didier Martin. The prefect indicates that he thus made the first purchase of this type in December 2021, while specifying that only 54 dwellings have “been identified as meeting the criteria provided” to be able to benefit from the right to abandonment.
The new dealer is long overdue
“For me really, it is incomprehensible that the State is disinterested (in Nantes-Atlantique) at this point. I think they decided on Notre-Dame-des-Landes and afterwards they no longer cared about Nantes-Atlantique (…) They nitpick about everything, there is opacity, they don’t work with the elected officials or the actors of the territory”, storm Julie Laernoes.
One of the sticking points is the renewal of the concession contract, which should have already taken place [Vinci est l’actuel concessionnaire]. The candidates are not jostling at the gate, aware that they will have to put their hands heavily in the wallet for the redevelopment of the terminal, the maintenance of the runway and its 400-meter extension. This last point, planned to reduce noise pollution for populations residing north of the airport, could even be abandoned.
Worried, elected officials and associations, such as the Coceta (Collective of citizens exposed to air traffic), complain of not having information on the timetable. “The airport runway is 6 km from Place du Commerce [l’hyper-centre de Nantes]. So, mechanically, no matter how much you turn the problem in all directions, you will inevitably have nuisances, you have to be aware of it, ”insists in particular the president of Coceta, Paolo Ferreira.
Ninth-largest French airport by traffic, Nantes-Atlantique carried 5.8 million passengers in 2022, a figure lower than the 7.2 million recorded in 2019.