While the current crisis offers our sector valuable lessons, it also demonstrates the resilience of our model for creating long-term value rooted in all-round performance, particularly in terms of society and the environment.

This resilience is seen in the unwavering efforts made by our teams throughout the crisis. There was never any question of VINCI Concessions closing a single one of the 80 transport facilities we operate worldwide: every effort was made to ensure the continuity of our public service missions and, even during lockdowns, we continued transporting people, goods and essential medical equipment in close cooperation with local authorities. I am especially proud of the numerous inspiring examples of solidarity we have seen throughout the VINCI Concessions network: both in-house, with countless initiatives centring on colleagues and business lines helping each other out, and externally, in the form of operations to help local people most hard hit by the crisis.

Our teams’ unstinting efforts also made it possible to deliver all our programmes: renovated runways at Rennes, Toulon and Sihanoukville airports, new sections of the A7-2 motorway in Germany, and the hybrid toll system in Greece. We also boosted our international growth with the acquisition of two motorway concessions, in Kenya and the Czech Republic. These achievements illustrate the trust inspired by our model as a durable solution as well as the excellent performance it offers.

The crisis has underscored the importance of our mission. Currently, by helping to ensure that frontline workers remain mobile and that vaccines are transported by air as part of the collective effort to combat the pandemic, but also by proving that travel during Covid is possible and safe when we implement the right health protocols. And in the future, when we will need to assist territories and regions with their economic recovery. This means that we have a particular responsibility in terms of tackling the challenge of the climate emergency.

At VINCI Concessions, we understand the essential nature of transport, and that it is a major contributor to CO₂ emissions. This is why, in line with the VINCI Group’s environmental goals, over the past several years we have prioritized the ecological and energy transformation of our infrastructures. The current crisis, far from slowing us down, actually encourages us to ramp up our efforts to meet targets such as reducing our carbon footprint, protecting natural environments and developing the circular economy. 

We are implementing concrete solutions in all these areas, from the most immediate, such as safeguarding protected species, installing electric vehicle charge points and pioneering the creation of variable landing fees to reflect environmental concerns, to more far-reaching R&D projects for alternative aviation fuels that will lead to zero-emission planes taking off from our runways in the 2030s. Our goal is to strip carbon out of the transport sector as a whole by reducing our direct emissions and helping to eliminate emissions generated by our passengers and partners. For instance, we aim to halve our carbon footprint by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2050.

As 2021 gets underway, VINCI Concessions will stick to its course and remain actively involved as the coronavirus crisis continues to rage. Because, although current events prevent us from seeing clearly what the coming months will bring, I am certain of one thing: mobility will be key to regional economic recovery once the crisis is over. With the determination, combativity and sense of solidarity that we are known for, we will continue to provide appropriate and actionable solutions to today’s problems and needs – as well as to the mobility challenges so crucial to the years ahead.

Nicolas Notebaert, CEO of VINCI Concessions