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 in the ''commune'' of
Notre-Dame-des-Landes
Notre-Dame-des-Landes (; br, Kernitron-al-Lann) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France located about 20 km northwest of Nantes.
The commune was the planned site of the new Aéroport du Grand Ouest, intended to ...
. It was intended for the new airport to replace
Nantes Atlantique Airport
Nantes Atlantique Airport (french: Aéroport Nantes Atlantique, formerly known as ''Aéroport Château Bougon'') is an international airport serving Nantes, France. It is located southwest of the city, in Bouguenais.
The airport is operated b ...
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 i ...
and
rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
networks.
The airport was met with strong opposition, notably led by
The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to:
Current political parties
*Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens''
*Greens of Andorra
* Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Greens of Burkina
* Greens (Greece)
* Greens of Montenegro
*Greens of Serbia
*Gree ...
,
Ségolène Royal
Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election.
Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 201 ...
and
Arnaud Montebourg
Arnaud Montebourg (; born 30 October 1962) is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who served as the Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 to 2014,French Socialist Party 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 word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
of "''
Zone to Defend
Zone to Defend or ZAD ( French: zone à défendre) is a French neologism used to refer to a militant squatting, occupation that is intended to physically blockade a development project. By occupying the land, activists aim to prevent the projec ...
''").
Consultation
A consultation was organised 26 June 2016 at the request of the French government. The population of Loire-Atlantique approved the transfer of
Nantes Atlantique Airport
Nantes Atlantique Airport (french: Aéroport Nantes Atlantique, formerly known as ''Aéroport Château Bougon'') is an international airport serving Nantes, France. It is located southwest of the city, in Bouguenais.
The airport is operated b ...
in the town of
Notre-Dame-des-Landes
Notre-Dame-des-Landes (; br, Kernitron-al-Lann) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France located about 20 km northwest of Nantes.
The commune was the planned site of the new Aéroport du Grand Ouest, intended to ...
. Official results (communicated by the prefecture of Loire-Atlantique):
Cancellation
On 17 January 2018,
prime minister
A prime minister, premier 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. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Edouard Philippe announced that the airport project was definitively cancelled.