They are fed up with it and want to let it be known. Exasperated by nighttime noise pollution, residents of Paris-Orly airport denounce the “environmental scandal” of non-compliance with the airlines’ curfew. Because since 1968, Paris-Orly has been under a curfew between 11:30 p.m. and 6 a.m.
“During the month of June, we observed 18 movements after 11:30 p.m. at Orly airport”, complains in a press release published this week by the DRAPO association (Défense Riverains Aéroport Paris-Orly). According to the association, these late movements “are mainly due to the overbooking of slots by certain airlines”, which causes delays. “This mismanagement once again flouts the public health of the residents overflown,” she adds.
Luc Offenstein, vice-president of the DRAPO network and president of another association for the fight against air pollution, OYE 349, recounted his daily life to France Bleu last May: “We fall asleep after the last plane that passes. The problem is that if we try to sleep around 11:30 p.m., and a plane arrives at the last moment with an outburst of noise because it’s late, it wakes us up. It has a huge impact on health. According to several studies carried out, it is up to 6 months-one year of life lost in good health.
To put an end to these offences, the DRAPO association is calling for a limitation of the number of daily rotations for a given aircraft, but also to no longer grant a landing slot after 10 p.m. in the evening for the low-cost companies, the main accused. That is to say, an extension of the curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for these companies. Finally, it requires that they be sanctioned in the event of non-compliance with these principles.
This is already the case in theory, with fines of up to 40,000 euros per flight. Last February, the Airport Nuisance Control Authority (ACNUSA) echoed the grievances of residents of Orly, deeming it necessary “to regulate the number of departures in the first hour following the lifting of a curfew as well as the number of arrivals in the hour preceding the start of a curfew” at airports where such a system is in place. Either at Paris-Orly airport, but also at Basel-Mulhouse, Beauvais-Tillé, Paris-Le Bourget and Nantes-Atlantique airports. In the latter, where a curfew has been in effect since April 2022, ACNUSA rightly pointed the finger a few days ago at certain companies that would not play the game, even refusing to pay the fines pronounced.