France has formally banned domestic short-haul flights for trips where there are train options available to reduce carbon emissions.
Two years after lawmakers agreed to end domestic flying routes where a train option that takes less than 2 1/2 hours is in operation, the ban was officially signed into law on Tuesday.
Currently, only commercial flights are subject to the prohibition; according to reports, the rules will not apply to private aircraft.
In a statement, France's transport minister Clement Beaune said, "This is an essential step and a strong symbol in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
How can we rationalize flying between major cities when there are frequent, quick, and efficient train connections? We are fighting tooth and nail to reduce our carbon footprint.
According to the EU, there must be a high-speed rail service that travels between the start and finish locations in less than 2 1/2 hours for an aviation route to be exempt from the prohibition.
Trains must also run early and late enough for passengers to arrive at their destination for at least eight hours.
The only three routes that will now be impacted are those that connect Paris-Orly Airport (ORY) with Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD) and Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport (LYS) with Nantes Atlantique Airport (NTE). No changes will be made to subsequent flights.
Early proposals were more tougher and attempted to forbid routes served by alternatives to trains that take less than four hours. The Union of French Airports (UAF) and the European division of the Airports Council International (ACI Europe) protested the ban, thus the European Commission intervened and set forth the current restrictions in December 2022.
Paris Charles de Gaulle to Bordeaux, Lyon, and Rennes, and Lyon to Marseille were additional routes that were taken into consideration but later dropped from the sequence. Because these railway routes do not meet the EU's requirements, they are now exempt. Should rail services improve, the lines might be included in the ban in the future.
While the regulation took effect on Tuesday, it had already been included in a 2021 climate law and was already in operation in theory after the French government obtained Air France's compliance as part of a COVID-19 support package worth 7 billion euros.
To make their business more sustainable after the bailout, Air France agreed to cut back on short-haul domestic routes. Other airlines that were barred from expanding their services to fill the vacuum at the time questioned the ideas' legality with the European Commission.
According to the French consumer organization UFC-Que Choisir, flights release 77 times more carbon dioxide per passenger than trains do on itineraries under 2 1/2 hours, and they are also just 40 minutes faster overall.
A tiny number of impacted roads and the 2 1/2-hour requirements, according to the latest ruling's detractors, render the restriction essentially symbolic. The three routes will only account for 0.3% of domestic flight emissions in France's mainland, according to estimates from the transportation advocacy group Transport & Environment.
Interim CEO of Airlines for Europe A4E, Laurent Donceel, blasted the restriction, telling the French news agency AFP that governments should instead concentrate on "real and significant solutions" to aviation emissions and that "banning these trips will only have minimal effects" on CO2 output.
FACEBOOK