Plans for a fourth terminal at Paris’s main airport have been scrapped after the French government denounced them as incompatible with the country’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reports The Times.
Barbara Pompili, the environment minister, said the planned expansion at Charles de Gaulle airport had to be rethought to take account of what she hopes will be the imminent arrival of “green planes” powered by hydrogen, or biofuels produced from substances including seaweed and rubbish.
Pompili added that the expansion had been based on air traffic growth forecasts that had now been rendered meaningless by the pandemic’s impact on international travel.
The announcement marks a reversal of France’s air transport policy, and brings President Macron into line with Boris Johnson, who opposes Heathrow’s plans to build a third runway.
Aéroports de Paris (ADP), the French capital’s airport operator, had planned to spend between 7-9 billion euros on a fourth terminal capable of handling between 35 million and 40 million passengers a year by 2037.
The project was designed to ensure that Charles de Gaulle airport, which handled 76.2 million passengers in 2019, kept pace with Heathrow and other major airports.
Read more of this report from The Times (subscription required).