France bans internal flights if there is an alternative by train
The ban on domestic flights in France, when there is an alternative by train in less than two and a half hours, came into force on Tuesday, after repeated controversies in a context of fight against climate change.
The French Official Journal published Tuesday the measure, provided for by the Climate law of August 22, 2021, but suspended while the European Commission examined an appeal from the airline industry.
The ban, which does not affect connecting flights, applies to routes between the same cities as the flights and which allow the presence of more than eight hours a day at the destination.
In practice, the flights that meet the requirements of the decree are those connecting Paris with cities such as Nantes, Lyon or Bordeaux.
The law was already applied in practice because the government forced Air France to renounce these flights in exchange for financial aid in May 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 crisis.
The main airline organization A4E, which represents groups such as IAG (British Airways, Iberia…), KLM or Ryanair, reiterated Tuesday that it is a “symbolic” ban, AFP reported.
Governments must support “real and important solutions” to decarbonize aviation, stressed the organization, which recalled that this sector has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Pressure is mounting in Europe to fight climate change and the carbon footprint of transport is in the spotlight, so controversies, especially with private jets, are recurrent.
In September 2022, Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and other PSG stars were criticized for traveling by plane to Nantes for a match, instead of a journey of about two hours by train.
The controversy grew days later when their coach Christophe Galtier ironized on the subject, claiming that they asked if they could make the trip “in a sailing carriage”, with Mbappé laughing his head off.
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