There are too many private planes on the summits!
In a press release, the mayors of Chamonix and Saint-Gervais (Haute-Savoie) called on the State to supervise "as soon as possible" leisure aviation in the Mont-Blanc massif.
An activity which, according to them, generates too much nuisance.
"With fine weather, certain glaciers in the massif (Le Tour, Argentière, Talèfre, etc.) become the backdrop for real weekend air meetings", denounce the two mayors of the main towns in the Mont-Blanc massif.
Eric Fournier, the mayor of Chamonix, does not hide his anger: “From the end of March, on certain weekend days we saw dozens of flights, or even a hundred during the day, with planes landing and taking off again. simultaneously on the same glacier.
These are practices that are not tolerable.
Such aerial activity generates significant nuisance.
For mountain practitioners but also for the fauna of the massif which is disturbed by this incessant noise.
"
"There is almost a queue to land"
Same indignation for Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais: “I have been fighting for 17 years to protect Mont-Blanc and all these highly polluting tourist flights are no longer acceptable.
On some glaciers, there is almost a queue to land.
It's intolerable.
We are paying for the excesses of unwillingness to regulate ”.
The environmental protection associations Mountain Wilderness and ProMontBlanc joined in the approach of the two elected officials.
“This situation has been denounced for decades.
The noise of planes disturbs animals such as chamois, ibex, large birds of prey, ”protests Vincent Neirinck of Mountain Wilderness.
In 2019, a Swiss pilot who landed with his plane near the summit of Mont-Blanc, at an altitude of 4,450 meters, caused a huge controversy.
Prosecuted by justice, the man was finally fined only 38 euros.
“It should be remembered that the management and regulation of airspace are the responsibility of the State.
All we can do as mayors is therefore to alert the prefect so that regulations can be carried out, ”insists the mayor of Chamonix.
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This outcry worries the professionals who organize overflights of the Mont-Blanc massif for tourists. This is the case with the company Avialpes based at Annecy airport. “Each year, with our 9 planes, we introduce the beauties of the massif to 3000 passengers. Among them, there are children, the elderly, the disabled who do not have the capacity to travel to this high mountain environment, ”explains Emmanuel Réty, CEO of Avialpes who fears possible limiting measures or even ban on flights: “This would have serious financial consequences on our activity and on employment. There are solutions to minimize nuisance. Our planes are low polluting and have silencers that limit noise. We also acquired an electric aircraft.These technologies must be allowed time to develop ”.
For Eric Fix, president of the French Association of Mountain Pilots (AFPM), “mountain flying is part of the French aeronautical heritage. It is an activity that has the right to be practiced in the same way as hiking or mountaineering. Pilots practicing in the mountains are therefore asking for a round table with the public authorities ”.
