Rethink on Nantes airport plans

PLANS for a new airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, are to go ahead – but will be delayed for changes to be made.

New reports into the Aéroport du Grand Ouest project, which has seen violent protests from countryside protection groups and environmentalists, were submitted to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and they have called for a substantial rethink on what is planned.

Ayrault has been a strong supporter of the project, which has been in the works for 40 years, but asked for a commission to look at it again in the light of the protests.

Now the commission wants to study the original projections used to justify the airport, which is to replace the present Nantes Atlantique, and especially whether the old airport can handle Airbus flights. It will also rethink the need for Nantes and Pays-de-la-Loire to have new air links with other major cities.

It had been intended that the airport would open at the end of 2017.