Microlight airfields in the mountains

Since 10 January 1985, the legislation has provided that “In mountain areas, the setting down of passengers for leisure purposes by aircraft is prohibited, except at aerodromes on a list set by the administrative authority.”

Included in the Environmental Code since 21 September 2000 (article L363-1), this article was amended by Law 2021/1104 of 21 August 2021, known as the “Climate and Resilience” law, and by law 2022-217 of 21 February 2022 on differentiation, decentralisation, deconcentration and containing various measures to simplify local public action, known as the 3DS law.

It now reads as follows:

I. In mountain areas, the landing of motorised aircraft for leisure purposes without disembarking or embarking passengers is prohibited, except at an aerodrome within the meaning of article L. 6300-1 of the Transport Code, and at sites authorised by the administrative authority.

The prohibition provided for in the first paragraph of this I does not apply to aircraft with no one on board.

II. In mountain areas, the disembarking and embarking of passengers by motorised aircraft for leisure purposes is prohibited, except at an aerodrome within the meaning of article L. 6300-1 of the Transport Code.

First difficulty: what is a mountain area?

Law no. 85-30 of 9 January 1985 on the development and protection of mountain areas (known as the “mountain law”) establishes a strict zoning of the mountain area to which it applies.

Mountain areas are characterised by significant handicaps leading to harder living conditions and restricting the pursuit of certain economic activities. In mainland France they comprise the municipalities or parts of municipalities characterised by a considerable limitation of the possibilities for land use and a significant increase in the cost of works due to:

1° Either the existence, because of altitude, of very difficult climatic conditions resulting in a markedly shortened growing season;

2° Or the presence, at a lower altitude, over most of the territory, of steep slopes such that mechanisation is not possible or requires the use of very expensive special equipment;

3° Or the combination of these two factors where the extent of the handicap resulting from each taken separately is less pronounced; in that case, the handicap resulting from this combination must be equivalent to that arising from the situations referred to in 1° and 2° above.

Thus, a site located in a valley at low altitude may be in a municipality classified as a mountain area.

Each mountain area is delimited by interministerial order and is attached to a massif in accordance with decree no. 2004-69 of 16 January 2004 on the delimitation of massifs, namely the Alps, Corsica, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Pyrenees and the Vosges.

In the overseas départements, mountain areas, also delimited by interministerial order, comprise the municipalities and parts of municipalities located at an altitude of more than 500 metres in the département of Réunion and 350 metres in the départements of Guadeloupe and Martinique. In addition, municipalities and parts of municipalities located at lower altitudes but above 100 metres, most of whose territory has slopes of at least 15%, may be classified in the mountain areas of these départements.

As you can see, this notion is particularly vague, especially compared with the aeronautical definition:

[95 ter SERA] Mountainous area: an area of changing terrain profile, where differences in terrain elevation exceed 900 m (3000 ft) within a distance of 18,5 km (10 NM).

This is not satisfactory either, as it penalises airfields on the plain close to major relief.

Second difficulty: what is a site authorised by the administrative authority?

As regards paragraph I, permanent microlight strips are authorised by the prefect and are therefore considered sites authorised by the administrative authority.

The question is more problematic for occasional strips, since they do not have the prefect’s authorisation but only require the mayor of the municipality to be informed. The mayor may, however, ask the prefect to oppose it, citing the nuisance it may cause. If he does not, this constitutes tacit authorisation by the administrative authority, since the strip is used under the order of 13 March 1986. This interpretation is sometimes challenged by the law enforcement authorities, but has never led to prosecutions that could have set a precedent.

Third difficulty: what is a microlight airfield?

Paragraph II prohibits the disembarking and embarking of passengers, “except at an aerodrome within the meaning of article L. 6300-1 of the Transport Code.”

This article L.6300-1 of the Transport Code specifies that “an aerodrome is any land or body of water specially laid out for the landing, take-off and manoeuvring of aircraft.” It would therefore be easy to consider that a microlight strip, although not an aerodrome (the order of 13 March 1986 is titled “order setting the conditions under which microlights may land and take off elsewhere than at an aerodrome”), is nonetheless “specially laid out for the landing, take-off and manoeuvring of aircraft”, and would therefore not fall within the prohibition of the Environmental Code, which the DGAC disputes despite the many requests for clarification from FFPLUM, which is following this situation closely.

As a result, in these areas the creation of permanent microlight strips is systematically restricted to flights with no passengers on board, a particularly penalising situation that affects 30% of mainland France.