As of this Tuesday, France will no longer have air connections between Paris and cities such as Nantes, Lyon or Bordeaux, which can be reached by train in less than two and a half hours. The French newspaper has published the measure, which was announced months ago and which aims to fight climate change.
It does not affect connecting flights, which is why many believe that it is a more symbolic measure than anything else. The routes that meet the requirements, and therefore will be prohibited, are those that connect the capital with the aforementioned cities.
The measure is included in the Climate Law approved in August 2021, but the French airport association (Union des aéroports français) had appealed the measure, as had ACI, the Airports Council International, for which reason it was suspended. while the European Commission was examining this appeal. In December he gave the go-ahead.
One of the airline employers, A4E, which represents groups such as IAG (British Airways, Iberia...), KLM or Ryanair, insisted that it is a symbolic ban. "Governments must support real and important solutions to decarbonise aviation," the organization stressed.
Train journeys must cover the same destinations, with sufficient frequencies and appropriate times, according to the decree. In addition, they must allow the traveler to be in the destination city for at least eight hours.
For this reason, some connections were excluded from the measure (between Rennes and Lyon, for example), because there was no rail alternative that would allow early or last-minute travel.
"The European Commission, in its evaluation of the measure to ban flights, recognizes that this will have no consequences on climate objectives," recalls the general director of this employer, Laurent Donceel, in statements to the AFP agency.
Air transport has always been in the spotlight in the fight against climate change, as it is one of the sectors that pollutes the most. France wants to be the pioneer country in this matter, and in the summer it also proposed limiting private plane flights.
The measure sets a precedent, because it could be applied in other countries. However, the aviation sector recalls that short flights of less than 500 kilometers (those with an alternative by train) account for only 4.5% of emissions
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