As part of a series of beneficial climate and environmental measure, French MPs have voted to ban all domestic flights in France where trains offer a viable alternative in two and a half hours or less travel time. It is estimated that planes that fly these short-haul routes produce 77-times the volume of CO2 per passenger compared to trains. However, the measure, which was put forward by the climate set up by President Macron has been seen by many as only a half measure as the original proposition was to include all flights where routes were also covered by train journeys of four or less hours. Thus, while flights between Paris Orly Airport and Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyon will be scrapped, those to Toulouse, Marseille and Nice will remain unaffected.
Mathilde Panot, of the hard left La France Insoumise, said the measure had been “emptied”, while her colleague Danièle Obono said retaining the four-hour threshold would have made it possible to halt routes that “emit the most greenhouse gases”.
When the French government gave Air France-KLM a €7 billion bailout a year ago to cope with the effects of the pandemic on airlines, one of the conditions was that certain internal flights would be dropped from Air France’s schedule, while Air France-KLM Chief Executive Benjamin Smith has said the airline is committed to reducing the number of its French domestic routes by 40% by the end of this year.
France’s new law will be watched closely by other countries. Austria’s coalition conservative-green government introduced a €30 tax on airline tickets for flights of less than 217 miles (350km) last June and a ban on domestic flights that could be travelled in less than three hours by train. (€1.00 = US$1.19 at time of publication.)
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