It was three years ago. Planes grounded during the pandemic. A distant memory. Today, air traffic is picking up again. And to gain market share, some companies do not hesitate to break flight rules, particularly at night. To the detriment of local residents and alerts from the control authorities.
This is usually not a good time to arrive at people’s homes. But Paolo Ferreira wanted to invite us to his home in the middle of the night, to better understand the nuisances that he and his family suffer. “This is how it happens”, slips this resident of Rezé (44), also president of the Collective of Citizens Exposed to Air Traffic (Coceta). As soon as we arrive in his garden, a whirring sound is heard. “Ah listen, there, it goes up to 70 decibels“, says Paolo Ferreira, his eyes glued to the screen of his mobile phone where a noise measurement application is open.Nantes airport is 4 km away. Planes fly over the house, sometimes every 5 minutes, and their nuisances continue very late into the night, when they should not.
In Nantes, a curfew that is too poorly respected
In theory, Nantes airport is subject to a curfew. Between midnight and 6 a.m., takeoffs and landings are prohibited. That night, however, an Easyjet flight linking Nantes to London will take off at 12:14 a.m. This is not an exception. For a year and a half since the curfew came into force, Paolo Fereira’s association has done its homework: overruns are almost daily. “We see that there are at least 480 flights that did not respect the curfew“, he explains. 480 late flights listed in Nantes, hundreds of others throughout France. Since the post-covid 19 recovery, many companies regularly break flight rules at night. In a recent report, the airport nuisance control authority (Acnusa) denounces “the evolution of airline behavior“. And indicates: “efforts are essential“. Gilles Leblanc, the president of the Acnusa, participated in the writing of the report. He also sits on the commission which financially sanctions companies. “In 2022, we fined 4.6 million euros. Next year, we will be at 15 million“, predicts the senior official, after noting a 50% increase in sanction procedures this year. For him, some airlines schedule too many flights – sometimes 8 in a single day for one and the same plane. Result: no more unforeseen events, no more delays. And at the end of overtime. “It’s a logic of whatever it takes that is at work. Gaining market share over the competition, if it has to cost fines, it’s a price that companies are ready to paydeplores Gilles Leblanc. There is fierce competition between them.“
From the long list of at-fault companies, we contacted those who were penalized the most last year. Their responses oscillate between justifications and timid realizations. “Easyjet is particularly exposed to disruptions such as airspace congestion“, defends the British company. For Ryanair, the excesses of the curfew come “air traffic control strikes [qui] have repercussions on flight schedules.“Finally, Volotea assures that”very important adjustments have been made in recent months.”
Late arrivals and empty flights
These declarations struggle to convince associations and authorities. Especially since to continue arriving late without being sanctioned, companies seem to have found a solution: diversion. This is what the local residents’ association Drapo (Defense of residents of Paris-Orly airport) noticed. Example with the Santorini-Paris flight on August 28 which was initially scheduled to land at Orly, an airport under curfew. “The plane arrives too late to respect the Orly curfewexplains Minh Nguyen Vanh, the association’s technician, in front of the radar data. He is therefore obliged to head towards Roissy where he arrives at 12:36 a.m..” A diversion to Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, not affected by the curfew, then, six hours later, a very short flight, without passengers, to Orly. The technician continues: “we see that he left Roissy at 6:52 a.m. to arrive at Orly at 7:11 a.m. He left empty to resume his rotations. It’s absurd.“19 minutes of flight and at least 3 tonnes of CO2 released.
According to the association, since the start of the year, in France, dozens of flights without passengers have taken place. On the phone, an employee of a low-cost company confirms that the strategy is adopted. “I have pilot colleagues who told me: it’s around 2000 euros per flight hour, he testifies. I think that company managers consider all of this to say that in the end, it is better to take the risk, even if it means diverting rather than canceling the flight. They are aware that they are playing borderline, but oh well.” Acnusa points out that diversions are normally emergency maneuvers, triggered in the event of danger threatening the aircraft. They are demanding immediate awareness from companies about respecting flight rules.
Among our sources (non-exhaustive list):
Annual report 2023, Acnusa
Collective of citizens exposed to air traffic (Coceta)
Drapo Association (near Paris-Orly airport)
Flight radar 24