French court rejects developers' demand for compensation over scrapped airport

A French court has rejected a demand by construction company Vinci for nearly 1.6 billion euros from the government for the abandonment of a controversial project to build an airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, in the west of France. It nonetheless opened the door to a "termination indemnity" for the group.

Demonstration against the construction of Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport in front of the Nantes administrative court, on 18 June 2015. AFP/GEORGES GOBET

"The State did not commit a fault by abandoning, for reasons of general interest, the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project," the court's statement reads.

"The concessionaire company can therefore only claim a termination indemnity and compensation for its loss of earning," the court said in a statement.

"The termination of the concession [of the airport] is justified by reasons of general interest," it concluded.

The amount of any indemnity will be determined later, with the court taking into account gains obtained by Aéroport du Grand Ouest or its shareholder companies by their possible designation as new concessionaires of the current Nantes-Atlantique airport.

Over a billion euros demanded

Vinci said that the legal dispute would continue before the administrative court until it rules on the substance of the case. This is unlikely to happen before 2026 or 2027.

The company had sought nearly 1.6 billion euros in compensation after the government definitively cancelled the project in January 2018.

As early as 2019, the then transport minister Elisabeth Borne had indicated that the government was negotiating with Vinci for compensation related to the abandonment of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project, which Vinci formally denied.

• Thousands protest against new airport in western France

First conceived in the 1960s and revived in 2000, the project has become a symbol of ecological struggles in France following the occupation of the site by environmental activists.

The Vinci Group manages 12 airports in France, including Lyon-Saint Exupéry, Rennes Bretagne, Toulon-Hyères and Nantes-Atlantique, as well as 70 others worldwide, according to its official website.

(with AFP)