“For three months we were on vacation. A few hundred meters from the tarmac at Beauvais-Tillé airport, Jean-Jacques experienced confinement like an enchanted parenthesis. “I even rediscovered the song of the Song thrush”, smiles the septuagenarian. But the memory of those sweet evenings spent in his garden listening to the birds already seems far away. “It was too short,” he sighs.
On June 14, the airport platform reopened to the public smoothly after three months of closure, pending a more substantial resumption of activity. It is now done, with the return to the runways this Wednesday of Ryanair planes.
What to rejoice the Sageb, company which operates the airport, which saw its turnover plummet for a quarter. “But for us, this is not good news at all,” breathes Michel, whose house in Troissereux is located under an air corridor.
An activity still limited but which could quickly increase
This Monday, 26 planes took off or landed in Beauvais, against about 75 in normal times. “We are on a more sustained activity, but that is still very reduced compared to what it should have been at this period”, underlines Edo Friart, commercial director of Sageb.
“For the moment, it’s still going well, recognizes Michel. But to see how quickly they will leave. Because if the Irish company, which represents 75% of airport traffic, must for the moment resume “35 to 40%” of its flights to Beauvais, some fear a rapid ramp-up.
“They will cut prices to recover market share and thus take off as many planes as possible,” says Dominique Lazarski, president of the association of residents of Beauvais-Tillé airport (Adera). In order to “celebrate the resumption of flights”, the company also announced the sale of tickets at prices “the lowest ever offered by Ryanair during the high season”.
Local residents fear for their curfew
And among the inhabitants returns the question of the basic project that Ryanair plans to install in Beauvais to store planes. According to Adera, the infrastructure would contribute to an increase in air traffic from 4 million annual passengers currently to 6 million by 2023.
“We have no news at the moment but discussions are still ongoing,” said Edo Friart. A sword of Damocles for the residents who see in it the possibility, permitted by an inter-ministerial decree, of having planes take off very early in the morning. Even bypass the curfew, imposed between midnight and 5 am, in certain circumstances. Contacted, Ryanair did not respond to our requests.
