The tender for the remodeling of Nantes airport, decided after the abandonment of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes project in 2018, was canceled by the State, according to a letter from the prefect of Loire-Atlantique, obtained by AFP on Friday.
A meeting will be held on Monday morning in the prefecture of Nantes, in the presence of the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, “following the Government’s decision not to continue with the current tender procedure for the renewal of the concession of Nantes airport Atlantic and to share the calendar elements for the relaunch of a new tender,” according to this letter dated Friday.
The information was revealed on Thursday by The Figaro.
The airport is currently managed by a consortium led by Vinci. The French construction giant submitted a bid in June as part of a new consortium with public works group ETPO, the Caisse des Dépôts and the Nantes Saint-Nazaire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Le Figaro reports. This consortium was the only candidate for the tender, the newspaper indicates.
Runway expansion
The airport remodeling project includes an extension of the runway by 400 meters, the prohibition of flights between midnight and 6 in the morning and the creation of a new station to serve the airport in the current Nantes-Sainte-Pazanne. .
In fact, in April 2022, a curfew was introduced for commercial flights between midnight and 6:00 a.m., as well as a ban on landing and taking off of the noisiest planes between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. hours.
The initial schedule provided for the entry into force of the contract with the new concessionaire in early 2023 and a declaration of public utility for the redevelopment works “around 2024”, according to the website presenting the project. The cost was estimated in 2019 at “about 450 million euros without taxes.”
The project aims to respond to the expected increase in air traffic, which is expected to reach 11.4 million passengers per year in 2040, compared to 6.2 million in 2018.
Source: BFM TV
