The Grand Ouest Airport, or Aéroport du Grand Ouest Project was a project for a new airport, to be situated to the north-west of the French city of

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

in the ''commune'' of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. It was intended for the new airport to replace Nantes Atlantique Airport as the airport for Nantes, but also to serve as an international gateway for western France.

History

The €580 million project was approved in February 2008, with construction expected to start in 2014 and an opening date in 2017. Initially the airport was planned to have a capacity of four million passengers a year, increasing to nine million by 2050. This compares with the current capacity at Nantes Atlantique of three million passengers a year, a capacity that it is claimed cannot be increased because of the proximity of the airport to the city centre (a distance of only ). Opponents claimed that Nantes Atlantique can increase its capacity to 4 million passengers a year. The new airport was planned to have two runways, and to be linked to the French

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

and rail networks. The airport was met with strong opposition, notably led by The Greens,

Ségolène Royal Ségolène Royal (; born Marie-Ségolène Royal; 22 September 1953) is a French politician who took part in the 2007 French presidential election, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round. She was the first woman in France's history to r ...

and Arnaud Montebourg, even though the

French Socialist Party The Socialist Party ( , PS) is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politics, left-wing List of political parties in France, political party in France. It holds Social democracy, social democratic and Pro-Europeanism, pro-European v ...

supported it. Also various groups have set up numerous protest camps and squats around the area that will be built upon known as the "ZAD" (

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

of "'' Zone to Defend''").

Consultation

A consultation was organised 26 June 2016 at the request of the French government. The population of

Loire-Atlantique Loire-Atlantique (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Louére-Atantique''; ; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', ) is a departments of France, department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. ...

approved the transfer of Nantes Atlantique Airport in the town of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Official results (communicated by the prefecture of

Cancellation

On 17 January 2018,

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Édouard Philippe Édouard Charles Philippe (; born 28 November 1970) is a French politician serving as Mayor (France), mayor of Le Havre since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He was Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2017 to 3 July 202 ...

announced that the airport project was definitively cancelled.

References

External links

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Official site of the Aéroport du Grand Ouest project
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Official local opponents website
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ZAD website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aeroport du Grand Ouest Cancelled projects in France Projects disestablished in 2018 Grand Ouest Cancelled airports Transport in Nantes Unbuilt buildings and structures in France