This Saturday, in front of the town hall of Marignane, around fifty members of the “Stop Extension Marseille-Provence Airport” collective are mobilizing against the construction of a new 22,000 square meter building adjoining Terminal 1. According to opponents of the project, this expansion will accommodate four million additional travelers per year at Marseille airport.
About fifty landings per day
For residents, the calculation is simple. More travelers means more planes and therefore more nuisance : “We don’t even hear each other talk on our terrace anymore” testifies a resident who sees about fifty planes parade every day. “The walls of my house shake with every landing.”
“The sky is not a highway” – member of the collective against the extension
Since 1997 and modification of landing paths In Marignane, some residents are woken up day and night by the deafening noise of reactors roaring 500 meters above their heads: “They pass so close, it looks like they’re going to crash into us.”
Noise and atmospheric pollution
The other source of concern is the fine particles released by reactors. Clotheslines turn black under the effect of pollution: “Because of the degassing of planes above homes, my neighbors have already found traces of gasoline in their swimming pool.” For its inhabitants who are already living a permanent ordeal, it is out of the question for the airport to expand: “Fatally, that means that air traffic will intensify. […] Why not favor other means of transport, such as the train? “
“To increase the quality of service to passengers, without developing the capacity of the airport.”
Contacted by France Bleu Provence, Marignane airport is formal: there will be no more planes than before. This extension should allow “to make up for the competitive backwardness taken compared to the major French regional airports.” The idea is to increase the quality of service to passengers, “without developing the capacity of the airport.” can we read on the site detailing the project.
Ranked fifth French airport in terms of attendance, with 10 million travelers in 2019, the Marignane extension works are underway, despite an appeal filed by the collective in June 2021.