For several months, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation has left doubts lingering: by withdrawing from the management of several control towers, cities will have to do without for planes to land. According to a social protocol establishing a precise plan for this approach, from 2023 to 2027, Carcassonne was for a time present in the list of aerodromes concerned.
Little information is circulating on the subject. Which, inevitably, leads to questions and even distrust at the local level. For several months, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has been discussing its disengagement from the management of control towers at several aerodromes in France. A project spread over years which concerns the smallest structures in the French airport landscape.
In the 2023-2027 social protocol, published in 2024, the DGAC presents three groups of land in which Carcassonne airport appears. A long list of dozens of sites throughout the metropolis which should be used to stagger the implementation of a new system: remote control. In fact, the selected airfields would no longer need anyone on site. The only solution for them consists of using private providers approved by Afis (Aerodrome flight information service) who, as mentioned above, will be able to communicate information to pilots, without being authorized to allow them to land or take off. Farewell to the air traffic controllers who would lose their jobs.
A situation which should not worry the Aude capital. On site, there are numerous commercial flights, via the company Ryanair, which is mainly present in daily traffic, but also military exercises, as well as private flights. Furthermore and for the first time, the airport in Occitanie hosted the airshow last September. The approach undertaken by the DGAC mainly targets the secondary air network in France, presenting “profitability” and lower security. Switching to remote control would allow neighboring navigation centers, better equipped and larger, to take care of approach services. But if Carcassonne does not fall into these criteria, the situation observed for several months on site is not reassuring.
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A deterioration of services observed
According to our information, seven controllers were responsible for monitoring the airspace. But a few months ago, this figure dropped to six due to multiple restrictions. A reduced workforce, partly responsible for the diversion of the Manchester-Carcassonne flight last October, since an air traffic controller did not show up at the tower. The absence of a single person had caused this setback. The risk, with the DGAC's approach, would be to go from six professionals on site to zero. Without a soul on the runway, Ryanair would no longer land at the airfield.
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If on the Sdis side (departmental fire and rescue service) in Aude, “discussions on the subject took place regarding this potential change”the CCI (chamber of commerce and industry), like Carcassonne Agglo, have either not heard of it or have only had a few echoes. As for the Occitanie Region, which manages the track, the rumor is denied: “From the information we have received, the control tower would be retained. The closures would only concern aerodromes without commercial traffic. No closure plans should therefore take place in the years to come.”
Contacted to find out more about the presence of the prefecture city airport in the list of the 2023-2027 social protocol, the DGAC has, for the moment, not responded to our requests. “It cannot be ruled out that program changes may have taken place in the meantime”estimates the Region. The media coverage of the subject and the rise of trade union organizations at the national level probably also weighed in the balance.
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