In Le Touquet, the city will have to launch a competition for the management of the airport.
Le Touquet airport can no longer be run in the form of a mixed economy company as is the case today. This is apparent from the study of the Regional Chamber of Accounts. The Chamber considers that the city should have made a call for competition for the direction of the airport.
The change of mode of operation will occur during the year 2020 with the next municipality to know if the management of the airport will be made by a private form of delegation of public service or municipal.
(google translation)
Maybe someone can post a translation of the French interview?
My translation notes between brackets []
At the beginning, a mandate (commission?) was given to the SEM, a mixed public-private company, in agreement with that company. The regulations concerning mixed public-private companies changed a lot since that time, and thus the Regional Court of Accounts “requests” that at the end of the current contract, this be replaced by either a public service delegation or by the city/county/… [I’m not sure] running the airport directly. The next city council will have to make the choice between these two.Will subsidies still be allowed?
Yes, they will be possible, except for so-called “balance agreements” which are strictly forbidden. Obviously, if it is a public service delegation there won’t be any subsidy, since the person presenting a project will have present a budget. If the city does it itself, it will be a dedicated budget and then of course there will be subsidies that will have to be granted to perfect the running of the airport.
Looks like there is a big plan for the future airport operator/contractor: to move from state owned company (SEM: societe deconomie mixte) to either a private company mandated to offer public service (DSP: delegation du service public) or to government monopoly that does public services under a business contract (regie en droit public français), in the former there will be no state/region money going in, in the latter some or a lot of money but accounts will be checked closely 
I was told a couple of years ago that the eventual plan for the airfield was to dig the whole place up and create a marina, maybe this is the start of it?
Since Mr Macron has a house at LFAT I would have thought dismantling the airport would have been impossible.
Also the site is a looong way out of town, with nothing much there, and there is plenty of room for the airport and a marina.
Anyway, it sounds like there is pressure for it to make more money. What this means for the countless other French airports which quite obviously make much less money than LFAT, is probably not good news.
With all the businesses at the airporrt, the highish landing fees and the skyhigh fuel prices, One would think it must be one of THE most money-making GA airports in France, unless it is being totally mis-managed.
It justs looks like a change in public accounting regulations. But in fact, it could break the good spirit that runs LFAT. Let’s hope the same people will stay in place.
The only remark I have is that the « chamber of accounts » has no power, it just gives recommendations. And the government never implement those. But LFAT city seems willing to stay 100% legal and I don’t blame them.
LFAT has a promising future with Brexit and this German customs stuff :)
Bosco, you know better, you have a Total card :)
Real shame they never kept 500 meters of the crosswind runway.
Bathman wrote:
Real shame they never kept 500 meters of the crosswind runway
Although it would be nice to have it back; Calais, conveniently nearby, has a 06/24 runway which I have used whenever the crosswind has been too strong at LFAT.
It would be a shame to loose Calais, and if L2K becomes unfriendly or even more expensive, that may help Calais which is too often deserted.
It would be fantastic if they thought it through and actually built a lovely marina, deliberately next to the airfield.
We could then very conveniently use both toys in the same weekend.
I know of a couple of others that may do the same!
