Paris (AFP)
The mega-project to extend Roissy-Charles de Gaulle terminal 4, with a capacity of 40 million passengers, "must be thoroughly reviewed" because of the crisis linked to Covid-19, estimated Tuesday Minister Delegate for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.
"The Q4 project must be reviewed in depth," said on Europe 1 Mr. Djebbari, questioned on the need for this extension, while ADP, the manager of Paris airports, announced a return of traffic to the level of before -crisis only between 2024 and 2027, due to the brutal shock of the coronavirus crisis.
"Revised in depth, this means that the project which provided for the reception by 2030 of 40 million more passengers, probably today is no longer justified as it was planned", he specified.
"On the other hand, there will be a need for improvements, there will be a need to accommodate new types of traffic, there will be a need to continue to be able to build soberly according to the needs of those of the platform", continued the Minister. .
"We are investing massively in the hydrogen plane, we must equip ourselves with airport capacities to accommodate the hydrogen plane", he also said.
For ADP, the objective of the future terminal is to make it possible to absorb the frequentation of Roissy, the second airport in Europe behind Heathrow. But this project, at an estimated cost of between 7 and 9 billion euros, is criticized on the environmental level.
In an opinion delivered in early July, the Environmental Authority (AE) noted that "the equation to be resolved" between the increase in flights, road traffic and compliance with France's international objectives in terms of reducing emissions of greenhouse gas "is not fully described or posed".
© 2020 AFP