The associations Notre Affaire à Tous, Sauvez le Beauvaisis and ADERA are today taking legal action before the Administrative Court of Amiens to stop the expansion of air traffic at Beauvais airport, the hub of the low-cost airline Ryanair. The legal action they are launching is the first in France to combine health (noise pollution, fine-particle pollution) and climate (greenhouse gas emissions) issues to demand the cancellation of an airport management contract.
Ten years after the signing of the Paris Agreement, there is still a long way to go. The French government, which committed itself to a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, is failing to meet the targets it set itself. Since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, the approval of plans to extend regional airports (in Beauvais, Lille, Nice, Montpellier, etc.) and the spectacular growth of low-cost airlines (Ryanair, WizzAir, EasyJet, etc.)[i] have revealed a growing disconnect between national climate ambitions and the business as usual of local policies. There is an urgent need to break with this logic and demand greater coherence in public action. At a time when climate events are multiplying all around the planet (floods in Valencia, cyclones in Mayotte, megafires in Los Angeles), is it really acceptable to still promote knock-down air fares to spend a week-end in Barcelona during the sales shopping period ?
Some are quick to say yes. On 17 July 2024, the Syndicat mixte de l’aéroport de Beauvais Tillé (SMABT), a public body made up of local authorities (the Beauvaisis conurbation, the Oise département and the Hauts-de-France region), awarded the management and operation of the airport hub to Bellova (a Bouygues-Egis consortium) for a period of 30 years. Negotiated with the utmost opacity, the concession contract is based on a very sharp rise in air traffic: from 3.9 million passengers in 2019, it should reach 7.2 million passengers in 2030 (+85%), before rising to 9.4 million passengers at the end of the concession (+141%)[ii]. To meet this demand, the airport’s terminals will have to be renovated and expanded.
‘The growth in traffic forecast for Beauvais airport clearly exceeds the targets set by France: the 85% increase in passenger numbers between now and 2030 exceeds by 67 points the threshold defined by the draft National Low Carbon Strategy 3 (+18%), which envisages a very rapid reduction in emissions beyond that date[iii]’, warn the associations.
This growth in activity will be of great benefit to Ryanair, which recently became one of the European Union’s top 10 greenhouse gas emitters[iv]. The Irish airline’s hostility to social and environmental regulations is at least as well-known as its ability to put pressure on local authorities to attract public subsidies[v]. Despite all their efforts to encourage a genuine democratic debate in the Beauvaisis area, and despite an understandable position (to maintain traffic as it is), the local associations have come up against a wall of contempt and indifference. In the areas overflown by the airport, however, local residents are mobilising in ever-greater numbers, concerned about the harmful effects on their health of the airport’s accelerated development.
The growth in air traffic has already led to a significant increase in ultrafine particle emissions. The data collected by the measuring stations in the direct vicinity of the airport and published quarterly by the operator[vi] show that pollutant concentrations frequently exceed the thresholds recommended by the World Health Organisation[vii], and that they pose serious health risks (cancers, respiratory diseases) to the populations of the areas overflown[viii]. It should be remembered that air pollution is responsible for 48,000 deaths every year in France, and that it has been established that the impact of airports on air quality is significant…and remained understated for a long time.
The development plan targeted by the contract would also expose local residents to a significant increase in noise pollution and the associated health risks (hearing problems, but also sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disease, reduced learning capacity, etc.), even though – once again – the noise recorded by the five monitoring stations located near the airport already exceeds the thresholds recommended by the World Health Organisation[ix]. If traffic increases, the intensification of night flights observed over the last ten years[x] is likely to continue, even though the harmful effects of noise pollution are greater at night.
Alarmed by the lack of any real consideration being given to these health and climate issues in the region, these local associations are today joining forces with Notre Affaire à Tous to open a new chapter in the campaign.
The recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (30 January 2025) that the Italian state had violated the right of the inhabitants of the province of Campania to live in a healthy environment, and, less than a month later, the historic decision by the administrative judge (27 February 2025) to cancel work on the A69, have confirmed the legitimacy of citizens’ movements mobilised in local areas to defend the general interest.
For the applicant associations: ‘The extension of Beauvais airport is much more than just a local problem: it is the revelation of a persistent failure in the fight against global warming, and a denial of the deleterious impact of air transport on the health of people living near airports. As long as local authorities continue to support high-emission projects that run counter to national and international commitments, we will all be heading for disaster. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The increase in air traffic can be prevented: other futures are possible.’
Contacts :
Notre Affaire à Tous – Justine Ripoll,
Campaign manager: [email protected] – 06 42 21 37 36.
Sauvez le Beauvaisis – Hélène Vivier, Association Secretary:
[email protected] – 06 17 14 54 31
ADERA – Dominique Lazarski, President of the association:
[email protected] – 06 30 82 65 93
Notes :
[i] ‘Aviation emissions in 2023: the worrying rebound of low-cost airlines’, study published by Transport & Environnement, April 2024
[ii] Tender analysis report submitted to SMABT in April 2024.
[iii] See the calculation assumptions for international air transport – and, more broadly, the roadmap drawn up for the sector by the Ministry of of Ecology
[iv] ’Ryanair is the new coal‘: airline enters EU’s top 10 emitters’, The Guardian, April 2019
[v] Two reports by the regional Cour des Comptes published in 2008 and 2017 criticised the poor management of Beauvais airport, pointing to the largesse conceded to the Irish airline
[vi] Data from 2015 to 2024 are available to download from the airport’s website
[vii] Set out in Directive (EU) 2024/2881 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2024 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe
[viii] ‘Les particules ultrafines des avions font peser un risque sur la santé de 11 millions de Français’, study published by Transport & Environnement, April 2024
[ix] Set out in the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise
[x] These have increased by 118% between 2015 and 2023, while the number of movements has only increased by 48% over the same period
