The new call for tenders for the redevelopment of Nantes airport will be launched "by the end of the year", announced Monday October 2, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, three days after confirmation of the cancellation of a previous procedure.
“We are not starting from scratch (...) We are moving forward by seizing this opportunity to do better, particularly on an ecological level. We are not wasting time: one month of consultations, I will come back (to Nantes) and from here At the end of the year, we launch the procedure", explained Clément Beaune to the press, after having met local elected officials and representatives of the consular chambers in the morning.
The minister anticipates a delay of "around two years" for the redevelopment project.
“A series of subjects” will be specified next month concerning the new call for tenders, in particular that of “the lengthening or non-lengthening of the runway”.
Clément Beaune also reaffirmed having requested a strengthening of controls so that the curfew introduced in 2022 is “better applied”, as demanded by many local residents complaining about the nuisance.
The just canceled call for tenders was launched in October 2019 after the abandonment of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes project in 2018.
“I measure the current disappointment (...) I know that it is vital to have a modernization of this airport and this is maintained as our ambition. But we must do it in legal, environmental, economic conditions, which are as satisfactory as possible", affirmed the minister.
The discussion with Vinci, current concessionaire of Nantes-Atlantique airport and the only candidate in the running, "did not result in an offer which would have been satisfactory in respecting all the financial or environmental criteria in particular", he added.
The previous call for tenders procedure "took place in an unprecedented context from all points of view", justified the ministry in a press release on Friday, citing "the consequences, particularly economic" of the health crisis and then the war in Ukraine on the air transport sector.
On Friday, the socialist mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, denounced in Ouest France "total negligence on the part of the State in the management of this issue."
The president (ex-LR) of the Pays de la Loire region Christelle Morançais, for her part, regretted in a press release "very bad news" and a postponement emphasizing "the urgency of upgrading the airport platform which is unworthy of a region like [his]".
