The measure has been in place since April 8. For five months, planes have not been allowed to land or take off from Nantes-Atlantique airport between midnight and 6 a.m.. A “curfew” decided by the State in order not to expose the inhabitants of the Nantes conurbation too much to aerial noise pollution. Only then, when the peak of summer traffic has passed, local residents point to the persistence of many night flights. the collective of citizens exposed to air traffic (Coceta), which follows the traffic with a magnifying glass, has just done its accounts: at least 63 flights did not respect the curfew in August, while there were 42 in July, 23 in June, 34 in May and 39 in April. Most of these are landings. The Volotea company would be, by far, the most affected by these deviations, according to Coceta, which had already been moved by the situation at the end of the spring.
“Despite our alerts, thefts still wake the population at night and their number has increased in recent months. So the promise is not kept. The curfew they sold us is a scam. And it will be worse as traffic continues to increase in the coming years,” fumes Paolo Ferreira, president of Coceta.
“Thousands of thefts have been avoided”
Asked about this subject on Monday, the prefect of Loire-Atlantique delivers, for his part, another point of view. “We cannot say that the curfew is not respected. Compared to last year, 95% of night air traffic has disappeared. Thousands of night flights have been avoided. The curfew applies to everyone, ”says Didier Martin. The State recalls that derogations may be granted to aircraft faced with unforeseen circumstances “independent of the will” of a company (weather, air navigation, health, etc.). This is Airport Nuisance Control Authority (Acnusa) which will study the disputes and issue any sanctions. “Fines can be quite costly” [jusqu’à 40.000 euros]insists the prefect.
Not enough to reassure the Coceta. “This optimistic speech is a communication strategy to try to make us swallow an extremely badly put together project, considers Paolo Ferreira. The companies do not play the game because they are not totally forced to do so. They benefit from a text that is too permissive. There are many sanctions but the duration of instruction is two years. It’s far too long. The Coceta also denounces a sharp increase in traffic between 11 p.m. and midnight, then between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., a “perverse effect” of the curfew.
The curfew between midnight and 6 a.m. is accompanied by a ban on planes considered the noisiest from 10 p.m. Humanitarian, government and military flights have a permanent exception. The independent authority Acnusa had issued an unfavorable opinion on the curfew project, not because it was opposed to it, but because it considered, like local residents, that the definition of exceptions set by the text was “imprecise legally”, at the risk of the airlines granting themselves too many freedoms.