MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2021) France has halted the project to build a fourth terminal in its largest Charles-de-Gaulle airport so it could replace it with a more eco-frienfly scheme, French Ecology Minister Barbara Pompili said on Thursday in an interview to the Le Monde newspaper.
The major project envisioned to enhance the airport's capacity up to 40 million additional passengers and conduct 450 additional flights per day by 2037. Its cost was estimated between 7-9 billion Euros ($8.5-10.9 billion).
"The [French] government has asked [international airport operator Groupe] ADP to abandon its project and present it with a new one, more consistent with its objectives of combating climate change and protecting the environment," Pompili said.
The ADP is due to ratify the decision on the matter next week. As for the replacement initiative, the minister noted that it should not revolve around the airport's capacity boosting.
According to the media outlet, another reason for the previous project suspension was the fall in passenger traffic over the last year amid the coronavirus pandemic and related travel restrictions.
Notably, in early February the French government was found liable for inaction in tackling the global warming and dealing with climate change. In this regard, under the Paris Administrative Court's ruling, the state is obliged to pay a symbolic 1 euro to four plaintiffs, namely Greenpeace, Oxfam, Nicolas-Hulot Foundation, and Notre Affaire NGOs, which filed a suit against the authorities in 2019 to get them to boost environmental policies.
