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French seaside resort to rename airport in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

A well-known coastal resort in northern France is considering changing the name of its airport in honour of Queen Elizabeth II.

Published: 14 September 2022 17:18 CEST
Updated: 18 September 2022 05:47 CEST

French seaside resort to rename airport in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

The beach at Le Touquet. (Photo: Ludovic Marin / AFP)

Le Touquet, in the Pas-de-Calais département, announced that it intends to rename its airport after the British Queen, who died on September 8th aged 96.

READ ALSO ‘The French are also in mourning’: France pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II

The resort’s airport, which caters for private tourist and business flights, was built in the 1930s “to accommodate the planes of British customers”, the local authority said in a press statement.

For a short period, in the early 1950s, it was the third busiest airport in France for passengers, behind Nice and Paris-Orly.

The proposal to change the airport’s name will be on the agenda at the next council meeting on October 24th.

Brigitte Macron, the wife of President Emmanuel Macron, owns a property in the town, where the couple often spend time.

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Eurostar says may scrap links to Amsterdam from 2025

“Could the Netherlands be temporarily cut off from one of the most essential rail links in Europe?” Gwendoline Cazenave asked in an editorial for Dutch business daily Het Financieele Dagblad on Wednesday.

The Dutch network was suffering “reliability problems, capacity restrictions and delays that are particularly inconvenient for passengers”, she argued.

The company could cut both its Amsterdam-Rotterdam-London and Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Paris routes in 2025, Cazanave’s editorial said.

“In the absence of clarity from the Dutch rail network (…), Eurostar will be forced to suspend connections between Amsterdam-Rotterdam and London and Paris during 2025”, warns Gwendoline Cazenave.

With Amsterdam’s main station undergoing extensive work since June the direct London route has temporarily closed.

Cazenave said that on various sections of track Eurostar trains had been forced to halve their speed to 80 kph since November.

Since the direct route to London was halted for a scheduled six months through to year’s end, passengers have had to disembark in Brussels for passport control before completing their journey.

The Amsterdam upgrade was meant to take six months, but Eurostar has deplored what it says is the lack of guarantees on a resumption date.

“Eurostar is fully prepared to reopen direct connections at the beginning of 2025, as planned,” said Cazenave.

But other work has also been announced from early 2025 in the station, which would limit the availability of platforms, she added. The London connection requires the station to also provide border control services, as since Brexit the lines crosses an EU external border.

In 2023, Eurostar said it had carried a total 4.2 million passengers between the Netherlands and France, Britain and Belgium.

French national railway operator SNCF Voyageurs holds a majority stake in Eurostar.

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