THE PLAN FOR a third international airport in the Paris region has run into further trouble following another bout of political infighting over its location.
President Chirac's Government has previously said that the decision on the location of the airport is a priority, to prepare for the expected saturation at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, early in the next century.
A report, commissioned from ex-transport minister Jacques Douffiagues in mid-1995, and released in March, strongly favoured Beauvilliers, in the Eure-et-Loire region some 120km (75 miles) south-west of Paris. According to some, its findings have been virtually ignored by the Government.
The Government has specified that the new airport should be outside the 100km radius of the Ile de France area surrounding Paris. Several other sites have since emerged as potential favourites, and there is speculation that the Government may even re-open the entire selection process although, under the original schedule, a preferred location is expected to be announced within weeks.
The process has been confused by the announcement of a public inquiry later this year into relieving the short-term-capacity problem by expanding Charles de Gaulle with two short, parallel, runways to the east, a plan strongly opposed by local residents.
The new runways would increase traffic capacity from 84 movements an hour to 120, and are described as "indispensable" by Aeroports de Paris. The Government adds that, if they were built, the need for a new airport would not surface until 2020-2030.
Source: Flight International
