Following the abandonment of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project, the contractor Vinci could be compensated as much as 425 million euros. Not a single meter of runway has been poured, not a single hangar has been erected. Yet the contract signed in 2010 provides for a bill that the State has not finished paying.
- The termination of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project in 2018 obliges the State to compensate Vinci between 305 and 425 million euros
- Vinci had invested nine million euros over seven years of project development
- The Administrative Court rejected Vinci’s claim of 1.6 billion euros in April 2024, limiting the compensation to termination and lost profits
- The old concession contract remains in force until a new concession is awarded, expected by the end of 2026
A 55-year contract, a clause that forgives nothing
On December 23, 2010, the State signed with Aéroports du Grand Ouest (AGO), a company in which Vinci holds 85%, a 55-year concession. It covers the construction of the new airport, but also the operation of Nantes-Atlantique and Saint-Nazaire-Montoir. The agreement was approved by decree in the Council of State on December 29, 2010 and published in the Official Journal on December 31. On January 17, 2018, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe renounced the project, and the concession was to be terminated for reasons of general interest.
Nine million euros: that was the amount invested by AGO’s shareholders over seven years.
However, such a termination is not limited to reimbursing the expenses incurred. The contract also provides for compensation for the foregone earnings during the years of operation. In an opinion dated April 26, 2018, made public on November 23, the Conseil d’État recalls that compensation could fall within a range of 305 to 425 million euros.
Vinci sought 1.6 billion euros; the court said no—partially
The figures from the Conseil d’État date from 2018, but the case took a very different turn. In March 2024, Vinci’s subsidiary appeared before the Nantes Administrative Court. It claimed 1.6 billion euros for fault by the State, or, alternatively, 1.4 billion euros for termination for an act of general interest. That is more than three times the upper end of the 2018 range. On April 10, 2024, the judges dismissed the main claim: “The State did not commit fault,” the judgment states.
The ruling does not set any amount.
The court indeed specified that the company could claim only a termination indemnity and compensation for its lost earnings. The calculation would have to incorporate the gains that AGO, or its shareholders, would reap from a potential designation as the new concessionaire of Nantes-Atlantique. The more Vinci earns from the existing airport, the lower the Notre-Dame-des-Landes addition would be.
A 2010 contract still in force
The termination was formalized by an order on October 24, 2019, but its effective date was postponed. The State did not want to leave the airports without an operator.
The timeline subsequently slipped. According to the Cour des comptes, in a report published at the end of 2025, the contract remains in effect as long as the new concession is not awarded. An initial call for bids failed in 2023, delaying the new concession to the end of 2026, and AGO therefore continues to operate Nantes-Atlantique under the old regime. Also according to the Court, the exact amount remains to be fixed, which sustains budgetary uncertainty over the “real cost” of the abandonment.
Vinci remains, in theory, in a position to become concessionaire again.
The indemnity is not the sole line of the note. As early as 2018, press coverage mentioned a cost of reorganizing Nantes-Atlantique ranging between 415 and 545 million euros, a figure echoed in a written question to the National Assembly. Added to this are subsidies for soundproofing and for reselling properties to nearby residents, financed by a compensation fund created as a public-interest group.
Sources: air-journal.fr | assemblee-nationale.fr | esspace.fr
