Big shears in the fence and an entry on the tarmac as fast as a flock of determined sparrows: dozens of activists from the associations Alternatiba Paris, Extinction Rébellion and Attac entered the enclosure of the Le Bourget airport to dramatically challenge the private jet travel of wealthy clients.
“A climate aberration”, summarize the activists, who have chosen to denounce it by deploying two large effigies, one of the head of state Emmanuel Macron and the other embodying the “ultra-rich”.
The two silhouettes clink glasses with champagne, with below the representations of animals trapped in a burning planet and an interpellation: “The rich steal, our future flies away”.
The choice of Le Bourget is highly symbolic since it is the leading business aviation platform in Europe.
In 2021, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Le Bourget air traffic did quite well and reached nearly 52,000 private jet movements, almost at the same level as in 2019, the year in which the airport recorded 53,685 take-offs and landings.
That number had fallen to just over 33,500 in 2020.
“The most polluting, the most unequal and the least necessary mode of transport”
The civil disobedience operation lasted less than half an hour and required the mobilization of 74 activists, according to the associations.
The action also took place in a small adjoining parking lot where the participants dressed in disposable coveralls covered themselves with black molasses, "symbolizing the common people, sprayed with oil by the ultra-rich", summarizes Charlène Fleury, door- word of Alternatiba Paris.
“The private jet mode of transport is the most polluting, the most unequal and the least necessary,” she continues.
Most of these thefts take place on feasible train routes.
They emit ten to twenty times more CO2 than commercial flights and 50 times more than trains.
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74 activists from @alternatiba75 @ExtinctionR @attac_fr entered the tarmac at #Bourget and disrupted the traffic of 2 private jets.
Why this action?
#RichesPollueurs (1/5) pic.twitter.com/rDPVpZ3bpE
— Alternatiba Paris (@alternatiba75) January 21, 2022
The operation took place peacefully.
It did not disrupt traffic according to Aéroports de Paris (ADP), the manager of the Bourget platform, which indicated that it was filing a complaint this Friday.
One of the participants was arrested and taken into custody.
"There is a lot of pressure to prepare this type of action since the legal arsenal has been reinforced against the introduction of activists on airport runways", specifies Charlène Fleury.
One of the most significant took place on the Roissy tarmac in October 2020, where 350 people entered the enclosure to demand the abandonment of terminal T4.