It has been exactly forty years to the day that Lépaud aerodrome has been open to the public. But if at the time the President of the Republic François Mitterrand had come to Creuse in the wake of inaugurating this facility halfway between Montluçon and Guéret, the situation today does not lend itself to birthdays with great fanfare.
Elected officials asked the question of continuing to finance this equipment during a recent session of the Creuse departmental council. And for good reason : only four commercial flights were counted last year. The amount of taxes collected by the aerodrome is also in free fall, with 38,793 euros in 2021, compared to 68,339 euros the previous year, half of the fees coming from military flights, with European exercises which took place in February, March and June 2021.
premium What future for the Montluçon-Guéret aerodrome in Lépaud?
No more regular line since 2000
The opening of the aerodrome in 1982 was to allow the development of regular air links. Corn it’s been more than twenty-one years that none of these lines exist. The last, which connected Orly with Beechcraft 200 business jets, was closed on December 31, 2000, by Air Bretagne, due to “a staggering increase” in operating costs. In the 1980s, there was also a regular line from the Compagnie Aerienne du Languedoc which served Clermont-Ferrand, with the possibility of then going to Bordeaux or Lyon.
In 2000, work was carried out to enlarge and widen the runway of the aerodrome, which had increased from a length of 1,400 meters to 1,900 meters, and from a width of 30 to 45 meters. At the time, we were already trying to give a new impetus to the equipment
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Already an alert in 2007
In an April 2007 report, the Limousin regional chamber of accounts had already sounded the alarmputting in parallel a “very low, even symbolic activity of the aerodrome” and a public expenditure of 515,000 euros per year on average between 2001 and 2005. “The room wonders about the viability of this equipment”, had concluded the jurisdiction.
256,000 euros of public money in 2021
Fifteen years later, the sail has been reduced but a similar observation can be made. According to figures provided by the Allier Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which operates the aerodrome, four communities paid 256,000 euros last year to finance the platform.
These are the department of Creuse (93,000 euros), the town of Montluçon (78,000 euros), the department of Allier (62,000 euros) and the urban community of Grand Guéret (23,000 euros). “It remains quite modest”, nuances the senator of Creuse Jean-Jacques Lozach (PS), former president of the mixed union
. The platform has two employees: an Afis agent (for Aerodrome Flight Information Service) and a firefighter. premium
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To give a new take-off to the aerodrome, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Creuse proposes to structure a drone sector, with the construction of a space that can accommodate equipment and maintenance equipment (laser cutting machine, 3D printer, assembly workshop) but also a training room. The whole would house a drone activity and related activities (maintenance, aircraft, ULM). A project costing between 600,000 and 700,000 euros.
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A club occupies the Lépaud aerodrome all year round. This is the Creuse Aeronautical Association, which has thirty-two members, and which last year organized the world glider flying championship. An aerobatic club in the Paris region also comes to carry out training courses in the summer
Presence of Saffron Local authorities also want to rely on the Safran site in Domérat (Allier), located about thirty kilometers away, which assembles thePatroller tactical drones
, and who found on the Creuse aerodrome, little frequented, the ideal place to try them. However, the delay taken by these new drones has meant that no tests have been carried out in recent years. After requesting the construction of a new building in 2018 to safely accommodate drones in Lépaud, then considering setting up in an existing workshop, the Safran group finally decided to return to its initial idea of a new shed
which he could use from next September. Contacted, the management of the Safran site in Domérat says that it has no communication to make on the subject for the moment. In an attempt to get some money into the coffers, a solar power plant has also been put into operation
on the airfield last year, with an annual fee of 35,000 euros.
Guillaume Bellavoine
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