Is Périgueux-Bassillac airport in Dordogne experiencing its last hours? During a press conference organized this Monday, November 4 at the CCI of Dordogne, its president Christophe Fauvel made shares his concerns. A call for tenders was relaunched on October 25 to find a successor to the Syndicat Mixte Air Dordogne which currently manages the 70 ha site, owned by the CCI. According to the president of the CCI, companies interested in this public service delegation are requesting the payment of a balancing subsidy, to compensate part of the chronic deficit of the structure. The CCI undertakes in the call for tenders to pay 190,000 euros each year, thanks to the participation of the two communities which financed the SMAD, the Department of Dordogne and Grand Périgueux. However, Grand Périgueux decided on September 30 to no longer put its hand in the wallet.
“An airport that closes will never reopen again”
“If the situation remained as it is, the CCI of Dordogne would not be able to keep this call for tenders online,” warns Christophe Fauvel. “And there, indeed, crucial questions will arise about the future of the platform”. For the president of the CCI, everything risks changing very quickly. “The deadlines are around ten days”specifies Christophe Fauvel, “to know if we find a solution or not. If we do not find this missing €95,000, we will have to withdraw the tender. This means that, in February 2025, there will be no more operators in Périgueux.” Managing this airport is a burden and a constraint, recognizes Christophe Fauvel, because it costs and it brings in nothing. But we have to know that in France, no more new airports will open and if the one in Périgueux closes, it will never reopen.
“You have to assume your responsibility as an owner”
An analysis that Jean-Louis Sudreau, community advisor for Greater Périgueux, delegated in particular to airport platforms, does not share. “The problem is that for some time, we've been scratching our feet a bit by saying a DSP, DSP, DSP (public service delegation, Editor's note) and we didn't see anything coming. It was a bit as if we had been at the top of the tower, Sister Anne, don't you see anything coming, and there was nothing coming? So at one point we actually had to show our teeth a little and say there he is! manages, after all, he is the owner!” It was the debate that took place for the Périgueux-Paris airline where clearly, at one point, the elected officials said enough is enough, because we are tired of financing a financial pit which has no place be in view of the scarcity of public money”.
According to the CCI, which is giving itself three weeks before possibly withdrawing its call for tender, the operating cost of Périgueux-Bassillac airport amounts to 500,000 euros per year. The last air connection between Périgueux and Paris provided by the company Twin Jet ended in June 2018.
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