Powner of the infrastructure of Périgueux-Bassillac airport, the Dordogne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) is looking for an operator likely to succeed, in February 2025, the Dordogne Mixed Air Union (Smad) which has been managing for almost fifteen n the Bassillac airport platform.
On October 25, the consular chamber launched a call for tenders which runs until December 13, notifying that the new airport manager could rely on “a balancing subsidy of 190,000 euros financed in equal parts by the two components of the Smad, the Department and Grand Périgueux”.
The problem is that the Agglomeration would refuse to participate in financing the financial support promised to the future private operator. “The same Grand Périgueux, which was up for co-financing a balancing grant of 250,000 euros with the Department, at the start of 2024, began to back down during the summer,” alleges Christophe Fauvel, the president of the CCI . I tried, by various means, to influence this decision, but on October 28, the president of the Agglo, Jacques Auzou, reiterated in the presence of the prefect that he would not add to the pot of the subsidy of balance. »
Declining participation
To make matters worse for the CCI, the Departmental Council would have decided in the wake of the intermunicipal about-face to reduce the amount of its participation in the balance subsidy from “125,000 to 95,000 euros per year », Says the president of the consular chamber. That is to say a sum of 46,000 euros less than that of 141,000 that it pays annually under the management subcontract signed with the CCI several years ago.
The Agglo would refuse to participate in the financing of the financial support promised to the future private operator
With 95,000 euros per year in public subsidies, Christophe Fauvel doubts that private operators will position themselves for the call for tenders. “In 2023, the CCI launched a call for tenders for the management of the airport, and the two responses received, one within the framework of the call, the other by letter addressed directly to the presidency, both went in the same direction: neither of them considered committing without a balancing subsidy of 250,000 euros,” slips the boss of the CCI.
A bout of pressure?
“Nothing says at the moment that this call for tenders will be unsuccessful. Christophe Fauvel predicts its outcome even though it will not end until December 13,” tempers the office of the president of the Agglomeration, Jacques Auzou, who suspects the CCI of wanting to put pressure on the community to push her to go to the pot and, thereby, place the responsibility for a possible closure of Périgueux-Bassillac on her shoulders.
“The CCI, through its capacity as owner of the infrastructure, has the legal responsibility to find an operator,” the firm continues. No doubt she would have preferred that the Smad, in other words, the communities, could ensure this management with public money, but we think that it is not up to the taxpayer to pay for the private sector. »
