Since the new operators of Lille airport presented their project to double the capacity of the infrastructure in 2019, they have continued to face criticism from an ever-increasing number of opponents. At the time, Smalim, owner of the airport, supported this project on steadily increasing traffic figures, the milestone of two million travelers having been crossed. But the Covid-19 epidemic has been there with its consequences on global air traffic, galvanizing the anti-expansion, united under the acronym Nada (No to the expansion of the airport).
Although the Lille airport expansion project has been put on hold in recent years, while air traffic recovers from the coronavirus, it has never been abandoned. Except that opponents of the project saw it as an opportunity to question this mode of transport and, consequently, the usefulness of expanding Lille’s infrastructure. “It is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to air traffic: wanting to double it at Lille-Lesquin is an aberration given the ecological emergency! », insists the Nada collective, which instead wants “a coherent policy on mobility” to be implemented. A point of view shared by French media engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici, who called for a quota of four plane flights per person during their lifetime.
Air traffic close to 2019 performance
Except that, in fact, air travel still seems to have a bright future in France. Thus, in its summer vacation report, Lille airport welcomes “very satisfactory” figures, better than expected: “the months of July and August 2023 recorded a passenger flow slightly higher than projections established. » After three years marked by Covid-19, if traffic departing and arriving from Lille has not yet caught up to its 2019 level, it is quickly approaching it, at 90%. And do not cast stones at so-called “business” flights, since, according to the airport director, Magali Huchette, this category of travelers is in decline, largely offset by a “significant increase in family and knowledge”, and a sustained increase in travelers to ”leisure”, ”international” destinations.
Based on this observation, the infrastructure operator persists: “the composition of 2023 traffic and the results of the summer season support the directions taken by the Lille Airport modernization project”. In particular, “the development of low-cost flights” is highlighted, with an offer from Lille of 54 destinations operated by 14 companies.
An offer that generates demand, which is particularly denounced by the Nada collective, whose member associations are campaigning instead for “the development of alternatives more coherent with the climate challenge”.