This is the second major airport project cancelled by the French government. After giving up in 2019 on Notre-Dame-des-Landes in Nantesthe future Terminal 4 at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle is also being scrapped. Announced by Ecological Transition Minister Barbara Pompili, this abandonment risks making the Macron government look like hostile to air transport.
The conditions for building this terminal have, of course, changed dramatically. The project was presented in 2018. The consultation was launched in 2019. The gigantic infrastructure was to be built on the existing airport site. ADP planned to build it to the north of the RER station, the Dôme and Air France headquarters. Terminal 3 would have disappeared to make way for a terminal capable of handling 35 to 40 million passengers a year and 450 additional flights. This would have brought CDG's total theoretical capacity from 90 to 125 million passengers a year.
Construction was due to start in 2022. Initial commissioning was scheduled for 2028. The construction cost was estimated at between 7 and 9 billion euros.
A project contested from the outset
However, the first phase of the future Terminal 4 had been postponed. last September. At the time, it was estimated that the terminal would open between 2032 and 2037.
But Aéroports de Paris was faced with two problems. The first, and predictable, was opposition from local residents and neighbouring municipalitieswho considered the project to be disproportionate and damaging to the environment. Air France also felt that the project was poorly conceived. The second factor was unforeseeable: the Covid.
The effects of the pandemic are devastating. Roissy airport saw its traffic fall last year by almost 71%. Let 22.3 million passengers 76.2 million in 2019.
And the short-term outlook remains gloomy. In an interview at the end of July 2020, the CEO of the Aéroports de Paris group, Augustin de Romanet, stated that "it's going to be a very difficult year.is the first time in 50 years that air traffic has experienced such a sharp downturn and it is clear that recovery will be very gradual: a return to 2019 traffic levels in Paris is expected between 2024 and 2027"he said at the time.
This is certainly a serious blow to CDG's development prospects. But according to the Chairman of ADP, the hub will be able to cope with the expected passenger traffic in the French capital until the end of the decade. By the end of the decade, this traffic could reach 85 million passengers to CDG in the event of a recovery without any major hitches.
But beyond that? The saturation of Roissy CDG is very real in the longer term, if the French government and Paris have the ambition to keep this major air hub. In reality, the government has not closed the door on future adjustments..
An alternative that includes hydrogen-powered aircraft?
In the newspaper Le Monde, Barbara Pompili indicated that the group Aéroports de Paris will have to present a new project. It will be " more consistent with its objectives of combating climate change and protecting the environment".
In the interview, she also criticised the obsolete T4, which no longer corresponded to the government's environmental policy. " And, above all, to meet the demands of a fast-changing sector, focused on the green aircraft of tomorrow." she declared.
Although there is no T4 project, the ADP group is continuing with its developments at CDG. According to a spokesperson for the group's management, " work underway as part of a State-Region economic contract with the Group has been completed between 85% and 90% and is due to be brought into service this year" .
The improvements include a connecting building between Terminals B and D. In the temporarily closed terminal at CDG 1, ADP is completing the merger of three satellites out of seven.
As for a new version of a future terminal, ADP to rework its copy. In a press release, Augustin de Romanet stated that "afollowing the government's decision to ask the ADP Group to abandon the current Terminal 4 project and to present a new project for the development of CDG, the ADP Group is initiating a period of reflection on the future challenges facing the airport. Paris's hubs are destined to become leaders in green aviation, serving all our stakeholders, and in particular the areas around the airport".
This enforced break would allow future hydrogen-powered aircraft to a project. In this field, Europe wants to be the world leader with Airbus. And the ADP Group is preparing to welcome these revolutionary aircraft. The end of Q4 could well prove to be an opportunity.
