Will it feed as the future Museum Soulages

Past the time of the pioneers of aviation, the elected representatives have always been defending their airports. Reserved to an elite for some opponents in the 1970s, they became, with the democratization of air transport, source of nuisance. Difficult, however, to imagine a city without airport or, more accurately, without air service, which is different (read below). As the development of the road network and the car led to redraw the rail map, the multiplication of TGV services leads to the question of the number of airports and the pooling of means that allow the common as platforms the future Notre-Dame-des-Landes, between Nantes and Rennes.

By organizing the transfer of most regional airports to local communities, the Act of 2004 has accelerated decentralization movement leading the elected officials to reconsider the economic utility of their airports, which, with 56.9 million passengers in 2009, provide more than third of overall activity of French platforms. If the existence of the airports of Nice, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux, which, to them five, provide 60 of the traffic of province, cannot be questioned, on the other hand, politicians are now in first line and not behind the Chambers of commerce, which ensured the management of airports and the bulk of the investments.

Jobs supported

Le Touquet airport accounts have so last December object beautiful passes of weapons to the municipal Council of the very chic seaside of the Pas-de-Calais. In question, the amount of a subsidy of 140,000 euros paid by the city, considered excessive on the 40,000 euros made by the JIU of Boulogne-Montreuil.

For certain destinations, the airport is even more vital that they are also threatened to no longer be sufficiently served by the train, much less by the TGV. "This is part of the things major groups to take into account when their plants in competition", explains Nicolas doorman, Delegate General of the Assembly of the communities of France. Thus, Rodez airport strengthens local Bosch plant and its 2,000 jobs. Will it "feed" as the future Museum Soulages. Similarly, the existence of Castres airport is strongly linked to that of Pierre Fabre laboratories. But trafficking remains low, and to maintain these lines, companies require communities to subsidize them. They may do so only in the "public service obligations" for the development of the territory. Lannion (Côtes-) is thus related to Paris-Orly, as Limoges. For its part, Le Havre subsidizes a liaison with Lyon. What refused to Rouen, the ICC did not have the authorization of the State to fill the deficit of the mixed Union which manages the airport.

In some cases, it is the existence of the platform that can be questioned. On paper, le Havre airport looks like a case of school. No decision, even in principle, is supported, but the Mayor UMP, Antoine Rufenacht, poses the terms of the equation: "A significant amount of grants, the project of making Deauville an interregional international airport, a TGV high-speed train project that could put the harbour one hour and a half from Paris - Charles de Gaulle and a platform that represents 160 hectares at the gates of the town.." "But was the right to future generations to take a final decision for the future", asks the elected As the TGV network is centred on Paris. The region of Brittany, she chose. It retains Rennes and Dinard, remote to one hour by car, in specialized by type of traffic.

Cities such as Bergerac well attracted a strong low cost traffic, on which they were able to build an economy, but they are rare. Others are facing increasingly framed applications for grants for the carrier and to make sure not to lose, now conflict of obligations of local development.