Reopening in mid-July and recapitalization in sight for the Eiffel Tower

Deprived of tourists for already seven months and faced with the puzzle of a suspended painting site due to traces of lead above the regulatory threshold, the Iron Lady is living a "difficult period to go through", recognizes the president of her company (Sete) Jean-François Martins in an interview with AFP Thursday.

Despite efforts to "reduce fixed costs" and a massive recourse to short-time working among its 350 employees, the operator projects for 2021 a loss of around 70 million euros, after having announced in March a deficit of 52 million in title of 2020. Year in which its turnover has melted, from 99 to 25 million euros, still according to Sete.

However, the operator has "no long-term concerns" and excludes any threat to employment. "The full support of our main shareholder, the City of Paris," will allow us to get through the period, "assures Mr. Martins. "This will necessarily take the form of a recapitalization" from the fall, he announced, the two consecutive deficits not being "not absorbable on equity".

"No aid" from the state

On this subject, Mr. Martins, elected PS to the Council of Paris, tackles the government: "the monument which embodies France in the world, which loses 120 million over two years, has not been the subject of the State of no specific or exceptional aid. "

The famous monument, which welcomed up to 7 million visitors in 2014 and another 6,2 million in 2019, had to close from mid-March to the end of June 2020, during the first confinement, then again from the end of October .

132 years old, the "great lady" will therefore have to wait a few more weeks before finding the public. "The time necessary to get back in order and in function", in particular the elevators, explains Mr. Martins, but also to "free up the spaces taken up by the painting site", suspended.

The reception capacity will be 10.000 visitors per day this summer, i.e. the same level of attendance as in summer 2020, against 25.000 before the crisis. Double cabins that can accommodate 50 people each will operate with a 50% gauge to respect social distancing.

The ticket office will reopen on June 1, with Sete relying on two-thirds of online reservations. The physical sale of tickets at the foot of the monument will remain possible when it reopens.

All floors will be accessible to the public, apart from a few construction areas, particularly on the second floor.

Lead scales

Suspended since the beginning of February due to traces of lead above the regulatory threshold, the painting work in progress will not resume before the fall, time to complete the studies and to choose among the techniques "the least emissive of lead", a explained Mr. Martins.

For the 20th painting campaign, which should allow the Iron Lady to have a facelift for the 2024 Olympic Games, it was chosen to remove the deteriorated layers of paint from nearly 30% of the surface of the building, there where previous campaigns only provided for 5%, in order to "improve the adhesion of the paint to the structure". It is this stripping which brought out, on the site, the presence of lead present in the preceding layers.

With the worksite at a standstill, Sete excludes any risk of lead contamination for visitors. At the time of reopening, "the tower will have been completely decontaminated, cleaned", underlines Mr. Martins for whom "the health authorities are guarantors" with 70 samples taken per week.

Visible from afar, the threads which collect the paint scales will be gradually removed. The next challenge for Sete will be to "reimagine how to bring visitors despite the various projects in progress".